HS Rugby: Gonzaga, Ignatius, Jesuit Sacramento All Win

03.04.2023HS Boys

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Three well-regarded Boys single-school teams logged notable victories this weekend.

#1 Gonzaga

Gonzaga defeated #14 LaSalle out of Pennsylvania 62-10 on a very windy day at LaSalle's home field.

"Defensively we were happy," said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. "We gave away some easy penalties and a try late. LaSalle's field is really nice and wide but the wind made it challenging to use that width."

LaSalle has scheduled some tough opposition and it looking to move up a level in play. They will have learned a lot from this meeting.

"It was a good runout for us," added Baggetta, who got some good leadership and overall play from No. 8 Burke Carroll and scrumhalf Joey Reis. "We have a relatively young team so the maturity those guys bring to the game really helps."

#3 St. Ignatius

The defending national single-school champs, St. Ignatius played their first 15s game of the season with a significantly changed lineup. Facing #14-ranked HS club Royal Irish, the Wildcats won comfortably 47-5 at a game hosted at Trine University in Indiana.

Ignatius got a good showing from the boot of flyhalf Aiden Pickston, who was 6-for-7 on conversions, many of which were scored near the touchline. Pixton and fullback Ryan Putka were the only seniors to play the entire match, while young players such as Jacob Papesh, Brendan Hearns, Connor Bender, and Adam Bornhorst made impacts.

"Our defense was really good and the try we gave up was on a mistake on a restart," said Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik. "There are definitely some things to work on, such as the lineout, which was just OK, but defensively we were sound."

Michael Krebs, Leo Ference, and prop Sam Chalhoub led from the front in getting Ignatius some good go-forward.

#21 Jesuit Sacramento

While Jesuit might be ranked a bit lower than they are used to, they put together a key victory on Saturday, beating upstarts St. Francis 34-31.

Jesuit was able to slot a penalty in the 9th minute courtesy of senior fullback TJ Pappas. Pappas added a second in the 17th minute and five minutes later, wing Cormac O’Flaherty finished off some hard running to score a try. Pappas hit the conversion from the touchline. St. Francis responded well and scored 28th minute. Pappas added a penalty right on the stroke of halftime to give Jesuit a 16-5 lead at the break.

Jesuit started the second half on the front foot with Pappas slicing through to score under the posts and converting his try. Prop Joe Mokofisi punched one over from close range before center Jagger Shaddix ran through several tacklers to just make it to the line. With the Pappas conversion it was 35-5.

Jesuit had dome superbly well to contain a dynamic St. Francis attack, but then fans found out just how exciting that team could be. The Lancers scored four tries in the final 10 minutes to make it 35-31 as Jesuit held on desperately.

“It was a great advertisement of high school single school rugby," said Jesuit Head Coach Andrew Acosta. "We knew that the athletes St. Francis had around the field would be dangerous if they got space. They punished our mistakes when we switched off at the end, but with some key leaders off the field it was a good learning experience for the team on how to close out a game. St. Francis Director of Rugby Keala Keanaaina and his coaching staff are doing a great job with their team. It was great to host them.”

Senior scrumhalf Noah Sanchez and junior No. 8 George Hemmen were named players of the match.