High-End Field of Girls Teams at Gonzaga Classic
High-End Field of Girls Teams at Gonzaga Classic
The girls Gonzaga Classic promises to be a bit of barnburner this weekend.
Several national-level teams are in action, with Aspetuck perhaps leading the way after a pretty impressive March and early April.
Aspetuck Girls on Hot Streak as Gonzaga Classic Looms
Don't forget that the Charlotte Cardinals lead Pool A with the very tough Vienna and always-skilled Knightmare out of Pennsylvania giving fans a nice cross-border class in every game.
In Pool C it's Aspetuck, which, as we've pointed out, is causing other teams problems. But they are in another three-state pool with the Raleigh Cobras out of North Carolina, and Belmont HS, the 2023 Massachusetts IAA state champs and a team that has impressive skill.
It's early days for Belmont, but Raleigh impressed over a month ago at the Carolina Ruggerfest.
And then there's Pool B. Perhaps the least settled pool, North Bay could be a big surprise out of Maryland, while Morris provided Aspetuck with their sternest test of the year in a close loss just last week.
And then there's Clayton, which pulled off some very good results in 2023 at the Gonzaga Classic and they are on fire right now.
Clayton kicked off their season with a 20-20 tie against the Raleigh Cobras and followed that up with convincing wins over Wando (40-5) and Southern Pines (42-7). They beat Oceanside, Highland (OH), and Brunswick (OH) by wide margins at Ruggerfest.
They've followed that up with wins over Morris 25-0, West Carrol 28-19, and Vienna 41-0 in the EGRL weekend in Greensboro, NC. After that they beat a very good Hough team in North Carolina. So they are looking Their next competition was against Hough, with both teams tied for first place in the NCYRU, resulting in a 54-15 win for Clayton.
Head Coach JG Van Graan said "the team remains cautiously optimistic about their prospects," which is coach-speak for "yeah, we're a pretty good team." They are senior-heavy and talent-heavy.
So what you have is nine teams that play at a national-ranking level (and yes, we're going to have some rankings come out, hopefully next week).
| Gonzaga Classic Girls Varsity Pools | ||
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C |
| Charlotte Cardinals | Clayton | Aspetuck |
| Knightmare | Morris | Raleigh Cobras |
| Vienna | North Bay | Belmont HS |