Good Start for St. Thomas in Texas
Good Start for St. Thomas in Texas
St. Thomas of Houston opened up their season with a 43-21 defeat of Faith Family Academy in Texas.
With a lot of new players and several new coaches this is a bit of a new chapter for St. Thomas. They started eight sophomores and the game plan and lineup were, said Head Coach James Wolfinger, was a bit of an eperiment.
"We learned a lot about ourselves and in the end we executed well," said Wolfinger. "Faith Family Academy is growing, improving, and really well-organized."
All of that is good news for rugby in Texas.
Backs Jackson Lang and Oliver Brown were outstanding for St. Thomas and handled the difficult conditions well.
In the forwards, Bailey Holub and Taylor DeJarnett set the tone.
"We have some things we need to improve on, of course," said Wolfinger. "We have a young, up-and-coming group and we do need to fix some of the law stuff. Our numbers are growing, and we're learning."
Also in Texas, Woodlands won comfortably over Four Points, while Lake Travis put in a very impressive performance, beating
Dallas Jesuit shut out Celina 26-0 behind tries from Mitch Sullivan, Daniel Lucido, and two from No. 8 Dylan Wachsman. Strake Jesuit, which has been a tough recent rival to Dallas as the top school team in the state, won big over Allen.
"Despite having to replace some impact players from last year, I am feeling optimistic about all of our levels this year," said Strake Head Coach Jason Kimball. "Our numbers keep going up, we have 46 seniors (si of whom are on the SaberCats U18 side) and 42 juniors. However we have several sophomores and freshman who are making big impacts. What we lost in hard-running and bruising attack from last year will be replaced this year by higher rugby IQs and overall team speed."
