The Charlotte Tigers put a tenacious St. Ignatius to the sword Saturday, beating the Wildcats 46-7 in an early-season high rankings clash.

The Tigers had played one weekend of shortened games, while St. Ignatius was playing its first gamer in about a year as the two teams met in Morgantown, WV to kick-start their season.

From the jump Charlotte was bigger and, overall, quicker to the ball and up on the line on defense, and their confidence in their rugby combined with their size and athleticism saw them jump out to an early lead and never look back.

No. 8 Eddie Van Heerden played very well and started the road to the first try by holding up the ball in an Ignatius maul. A penalty followed and then a lineout and drive and over the Tigers went. Flyhalf Porter Goodrum was good with the conversion, and he was superb from the tee, slotting five out of six conversions and adding two penalties for 16 points on his own.

St. Ignatius came right back only to see a pass get gathered up and taken 60 meters to the house. That was a big one.

“I thought our scrumhalf did an amazing job to finish that off. I wish I could have made that kick but I just hoped the boys would bring the tempo and we would start playing our way,” said Goodrum. And yes, he missed that conversion, the only miss of the day.

On came Charlotte, While Ignatius had try-scoring chances, close to the line they made key errors—knock-ons, lost set piece—that turned the momentum around. Power and pressure from Charlotte pinned Ignatius in their 22 for the next try, which came on a pick-and-go from prop Trevion Reed. And then after thwarting a scoring chance for Ignatius, the Tigers made their way down the field (aided by Ignatius penalties, and then ran a nifty backline move to put it in.

Goodrum added the extras and a penalty and it was 29-0 at halftime.

In the second half Ignatius came with a renewed vigor to make better tackles and challenge the Tigers defense. But they still had to commit three players to tackle some of the Charlotte forwards, and still struggled in the scrum.

The Ignatius lineout functioned well and the Wildcats stole some ball that way. 

Leading the resurgence for Ignatius was No. 8 Marty Lenehan, who was full of energy and purpose. He took on the Charlotte defenders and did so even when his shirt was pulled over his head so he could barely see. Lenehan kept going even after his shirt was ripped off his body. Ultimately his enthusiasm led to another scoring chance that went begging. Charlotte got out of trouble, chased their kick to get a good open-field tackle, put on pressure, and set up a long-range penalty attempt that Goodrum put over. it was clinical stuff.

Yet another scoring chance for Ignatius was stopped when the ball was held up in-goal, and once again Charlotte turned the tables, winning the scrum, getting the ball down the field, getting a penalty, and then driving the lineout ball about 15 meters for a try. That made it 39-0 with Goodrum’s kick.

But Ignatius didn’t fold and thanks to some good work off the scrum from Lenehan they powered over and converted to make it 39-7. Ignatius played with more aggression and adventure, but too often were not quick enough to the ball and conceded penalties. Charlotte scored one more and added another penalty goal to finish it off 49-7.

“One of our core values at St. Ignatius is humility,” said Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik. “And we got a good helping of that today.”

With both teams being well-coached in the way of the game, the difference was a little more game time under the belts for Charlotte, and their size. Every tackled Charlotte player fell forward and made ground, while the Ignatius forwards often found themselves scrambling back to recycle the ball.

“We said we’re going to give it to them and put them on the back foot keep on going and push it to the line,” said Van Heerden. 

“I thought the boys really showed up; they came in and really focused up and did what we do best,” added Goodrum.”

Referee Ian Seaton out of Pittsburgh had a strong day, making sure emotions didn’t boil over by punishing tackle infringements (no-wrap tackles for example) quickly and effectively. He sin-binned two players for clear violations, was consistent, and ensured the game was decided by the players.

St. Ignatius has plenty of rugby to play after this and will continue to build. The Tigers, however, laid down a bit of a marker on this one.