In a major upset in the high school rugby scene, Doylestown defeated Gonzaga 43-31 Sunday in the opening weekend of the new Mid-Atlantic Premier League.

Gonzaga in purple, Doylestown in green. Colleen McCloskey photo.

Gonzaga HS played two games with their Varsity Purple (1st) side, beating West End 41-7 on Saturday. That was a competitive game, and flanker Will Lyke led an excellent Gonzaga effort. But Sunday was a little different, as Doylestown made some crucial big plays to defeat the defending national single-school champions.

Doylestown opened the game with a try. Gonzaga was pinged for a series of penalties, and then Doylestown tapped quickly and scored in the corner for a 5-0 lead. The conversion wasn’t made, but flyhalf Mike Weir’s conversions were a big part of Doylestown’s win.

Gonzaga settled down somewhat after that start and scored two tries to lead 14-5.

“Gonzaga was really sharp,” said Doylestown Head Coach Mike McCandless. “Their scrum is well-coached and solid - they’re not just eight big guys doing their own thing. Same thing in the lineout. They are very disciplined and they put together a driving maul on us that was hard to handle.”

Doylestown replied with a penalty to make it 14-8, and Gonzaga scored another try to make it 21-8. Both coaches said the next few minutes leading into halftime were crucial.

“At that point we felt we had the game in hand,” said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. 

“We kind of had the wind taken out of our sails at,” added McCandless.

But then Gonzaga worked a move and outside center Jesse Capriotti stepped in, intercepted the pass, and raced untouched to score under the posts. Weir converted and the teams went into the halftime break with the score 21-15. Gonzaga led, but Doylestown had a boost from that try.

“That try put the wind right back in our sails again,” said McCandless. added Baggetta. “It really was a game of momentum, and it swung back and forth. We made some errors, for sure.”

Starting the second half, Doylestown scored again on an interception, and with Weir’s conversion led 22-21. They then got a strange try, as the ball bounced off a Doylestown player’s chest - technically not a knock-on, but the Gonzaga players were slow to react. Doylestown played on and eventually scored from that line break. Now it was 29-21. But Gonzaga didn’t become national champs by folding in tough circumstances, and they marched down the field to score a try, and then stole a scrum to score another. Now the Eagles led 31-29. From the next restart, Doylestown pressured Gonzaga, got a couple of penalties, and scored on a quick tap in the corner. Bow the Pennsylvanians led 36-31.

Gonzaga got a penalty, took the lineout, and got another penalty. They took the lineout again, five meters from the Doylestown tryline, ready to set up a maul.

“We had won every lineout all game, and the final lineout we lost,” lamented Baggetta. Doylestown cleared, but as time wound down Gonzaga was against attacking when they lost the ball in front of the Doylstown posts. Capriotti pounced on it, and ran the length of the field to seal the game. 

Gonzaga gave away four tries that certainly they’d like back, and Doylestown’s McCandless didn’t really sugarcoat it.

“Both teams showed some good things and both teams showed some early-season rust. We got lucky with a couple of breakaways, but it was very exciting for us. Anytime you can compete with Gonzaga it’s exciting for us.”

“The last two years we got out of jail in the final minutes against Royal Irish,” said Gonzaga’s Baggetta. “The ball bounced our way then and didn’t this time. Doylestown is a very good team and took advantage.”

For Doylestown, Weir was superb at flyhalf, seeing the field and directing the attack along with centers Brian Stella and Capriotti. 

“Our backline was very good, and executed well,” said McCandless. “Their forwards are big and very strong and we struggled with them, but what I was pleased about was how we presented the ball in the rucks. That allowed us to win some ball for our backs.”