Having been ranked #1 for much of the season, St. Ignatius rolled into Elkhart, Ind. with a massive target on their backs and even more massive expectations.
The Wildcats, relative newcomers to the National Championships, as they had often chosen not to attend despite having some very capable teams, were runners-up in 2021. This year, returning most of the team that lost to Herriman in the final, they felt they had the formula to win it all.
Meanwhile, Gonzaga, one of the chief rivals of Ignatius, had one blemish on their record, a 33-5 loss to Ignatius earlier in the season. Gonzaga, said the Eagles, were a better team this time around. Ignatius, said the Wildcats, were by n o means complacent.
So on to the final. St. Ignatius started with the wind at their backs and they certainly knew how to use it. Flyhalf Bobby Voth, who had a superb game and partnered well with his scrumhalf Sean Lipaj, would launch kicks downfield. The Ignatius chasers were not only there, but they would make the open-field tackles around the ankles and keep Ignatius on the front foot.
This all led to an early try for the Wildcats. Ignatius defended after the chase, forced a turnover, and the ball was quickly shipped out to center Joey Georges, who was not to be denied. Voth converted and it was 7-0.
But all was not well in St. Ignatius land. Lock Ian Milosovic took a bad knock to the head that saw him off for the game very early. That was not the only injury.
Back came Ignatius with the same formula. Hoof it down the field, chase, tackle, defend, and make Gonzaga cough up the ball.Inside center Tim Putka—playing there because the outstanding Marty Lenehan was nursing a dislocated shoulder—put in a perfect tackle to halt any thought of a Gonzaga counter-attack. Ignatius went down close to the line and worked their forwards. Normally this was an automatic try for the Wildcats and had been all season. Not this time. Gonzaga’s goalline defense was excellent and they drove several runners back.
Still ignatius retained ball, and finally Voth sent it wide where hooker Nate Polinko was over in the corner. The bad news? He took an injury to his leg. He gamely played on, but not for long as he would have to leave.
Still, Voth converted and it was 14-0 and Gonzaga was in trouble.
The Eagles battled on and defended doggedly. They didn’t allow the Ignatius short yardage game or their maul to take control, as it so often does. But Ignatius was able to get a penalty in front of the posts that Voth slotted to make it 17-0.
But problems were there. Gonzaga had been able to steal a couple of scrum put-ins—another happenstance that Ignatius never has to deal with—and the Ignatius lineout started to run into problems.
With Burke Carroll and Roman Funkhuser, Gonzaga had tall jumpers and they were starting to steal ball.
The result was Ignatius went into halftime with a 17-0 lead that they felt was not quite enough.
The second half started to show that might be true. Gonzaga was now the team with the wind at their backs and the kicking game that could put Ignatius under pressure.
Ignatius seemed to be in a position to handle that and forced a penalty. But … lineouts … they couldn’t win the lineout and Gonzaga was on the attack again.
