Herriman, La Salette, Gonzaga, and Ignatius Into School Semis

Gonzaga and Jesuit played a momentum-shifter. Gonzaga took and early lead only to see Jesuit come back and with soime sllick ball handling from Maximus Dichesne, they took the lead 19-12.

Scrumahlf Jimmy Ries was impressive for Gonzaga and he scored an excellent try in answer. And so it went. Gonzaga retook the lead 26-24, and then scored again to lead 31-24.

Gonzaga then kicked a penalty to lead 34-24 ... and that was just halftime. Another run from Ries set up a chance for Owen Hastings. That made it 41-24. But Jesuit stormed back, scoring two tries to get within a try at 41-34.

But Gonzaga somehow held on, eventually winning 46-41.

In the final match of the day, Greenwich made it very difficult on Ignatius.

A dropped ball early in the match turned a scoring chance for Ignatius into a brilliant series of kicks ahead and chase for Greenwich No. 8 Julen Guazo. Ignatius, now down 5-0, got the ball back and run some hard chagres from lock Grayson Halkiadkis and prop Sam Leopold, with flanker Charlie Worthington also dangerous. That was enough to force some offside penalties and Ignatius punished those, eventually getitng hooker Noah Spinos over. Henry McGowan converted for a 7-5 lead.

Ignatius scored a second try after a long, weaving run from Worthington, but Greenwich answered. A well-weighted box kick from Reuben Meier was chased by his teammates. They forced an Ignatius mistake, and from a scrum they pressed further and sent it wide to wing Nick Martschenko.

That made it 14-10, but Ignatius responded with Alex Werner powering over.

The half ended with a potential Greenwich try from a kick into in-goal stopped when Ignatius No. 8 Ben Stefan raced back to touch it down.

So it was 19-10, not, say, 19-17.

The second half saw Ignatius play more field position. Connor Gallagher kicked well for territory and while Greenwich got the better of some exchanges, they really couldn't get out of their half.

Halkiadakis thundered over for a try. Then reserve center Levi Hoffman, who was on because original reserve center, Charlie Banaczak, had picked up an injury, made a play.

Off a scrum in the middle area of the field, McGowan signaled that he saw space for a grubber. The ball rolled between two defenders, hit a bump, and popped up for Hoffman. With the ball in hand now Hoffman made a sidestep and sped in to score.

That put Ignatius up 33-10 and really turned the game in their favor.

Ignatius would score again through Werner, but, more than anything else, they just pinned Greenwich back in their own end.

Ignatius did sustain some injuries, but they advanced to the semis for the six straight year.

"Giving up that early try, that's kind of what we've been like," said Ignatius Head Coach, noting that the team has often has iffy halves and good halves in the same game. "But we defended very well."

Sam Leopold and Grayson Halkiadkis were powerful carriers for Ignatius, while Bucsanyi, called in to be scrumhalf after starter Harrison White hurt his leg, kept the game moving.

So now it's Ignatius vs Gonzaga in a rivalry game that has seen these two teams meet three times in the past five years (2021 semis, which Ignatius won, 2022 final, which Ignatius won, and 2024 final, which Gonzaga won).

The winner of that game will take on the winner of Herriman vs La Salette.