Jesuit of Dallas defeated Colorado Springs 22-0 to win the Jesuit Showdown in Texas, capping off a nice 3-0 weekend.

Regis Jesuit defeated St. Therese Lisieux 31-5 for third. 

Katy lost their opener, but won two in a row, including their 37-14 win over Jesuit of New Orleans for 5th. Strake Jesuit beat St. Maximilian Kolbe 19-10 for 7th. 

“Our defense was coming up really well together, and our tackling was good,” said assistant captain Chris Madonna. “They ran their big forwards out wide and that was something we needed to adjust to. But everyone just went in low and brought them down.”

Captain and flyhalf Joey Nuchereno agreed that team defense was the key to winning the tournament.

“Everyone tackled one through 15,” he said. 

Jesuit was coming off a 1-2 showing at Nash Bash where they were missing a few players. Even on Saturday they still had to deal with some absences (Saturday was an SAT exam day). But when their top 15 was available, they were impressive, taking down one of the favorites to win the Colorado state title.

“We knew we could play well as a unit with no mistakes,” said Nuchereno. “Coach Mattacchione is usually pretty vocal on the sidelines, but he was quiet today. He kind of let us work it out ourselves and we showed we can play together.”

The tournament itself mixed teams from Colorado, Ontario, Texas, and Louisiana.

“It’s great to play teams we don’t normally see,” said Madonna. “And to do so well kind of puts more steam in our engine to shoot for a state title.”

Jesuit got tries from No. 8 Will Newman, who burst through the line for the opening try, wing Roman Kimbrell, who was unable to play Saturday but earned player of the game honors on Sunday, and Charles Bender, who dummied his way over and added two conversions and a late penalty.