Cathedral Catholic Gets By St. Augustine in Holy Bowl

02.05.2023HS Boys

The Holy Bowl is an intense rivalry between San Diego high schools Cathedral Catholic and St Augustine; it's been contested in many sports for over 70 years, and in rugby for 14, including Friday night.

The Saints jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after two minutes when their speedy center Caleb Aguirre broke through the Dons defense for a long run. The Dons defense was able to catch him five meters from paydirt, but St. Augustine recycled quickly and over they went. Lucca Rohrer converted and the Saints led 7-0. Moments later Rohrer slotted a penalty to make it 10-0.

The Dons fought back with Lewis Case scoring the first of his two tries. This one came off a ruck and Case sliced through the Saints defense. Spencer Huntley to make it 10-7. Huntley then banged over a penalty to tie the game at 10-10 after 20 minutes.

Tenacious defense by the Dons kept pressure on the Saints and with minutes to go in the half Dons Huntley fired a perfect pass off the base of a ruck to center Sean Kagen, who went over in the corner. Now Cathedral led 15-10.

Second Half

As the second half started both sides used their strong kicking games to try to force an advantage. Both sides’ wings and fullbacks played exceptionally well in fielding the kicks and counter attacking. After 10 minutes of back-and-forth, the Saints were penalized and Huntley again slotted a penalty making it 18-10 Dons.

As the Dons continued to play fast attacking ball, Case was again able to split the Saints defense for his second try, making it 23-10 with 15 minutes to go. And then the dagger came when the Saints attempted to swing the ball wide. Wing Matt Hammond intercepted a Saints pass and sprinted 50 meters to touch down under the posts for the try. Huntley added the extras for the 30-10 lead.

The Saints took advantage of a Dons penalty and took a quick tap from the 10 to score a converted try by Aiden Kemp with three minutes to go. Cethedral held on after that 30-17.

"Again another great team effort by the entire Dons team, especially fighting back after being down 10-0," said Cathedral Head Coach Glenn Irvine. Fullback Kieran Quinn and wings Matt Hammond and Will Bond were very good in dealing with the Saints' kicking game. At second row, Willie Boyer was dominant in the lineouts.

Also in the SCIRF, Fallbrook won via forfeit over St. John Bosco.So now Cathedral lead the SCIRF at 7-0 and Fallbrook is now 6-1 while St. Augustine is 5-1. The top two teams play in the SCIRF final.

Cathedral Catholic, SCIRF, St. Augustine

Second Half

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