La Salette Impresses Against Ranked Opponents
La Salette Impresses Against Ranked Opponents
Notre Dame de la Salette made a bit of a statement this weekend with two well-taken wins over St. Edward and St. Martin's.
St. Edward from Cleveland and St. Martin's Kingfishers from Kansas converged on La Salette's campus in Illinois for a weekend of games. St. Martin's beat St. Edward 36-24 while NDDLS beat both by similar scores: 45-5 over St. Edward, and 43-13 over St. Martin's.
On Friday night in the first matchup, wind, which was to be a theme the whole weekend, was gusting up to 40 mph. La Salette, however, was unfazed playing into the wind, racing out to a 26-0 lead at halftime. The second half continued is similar fashion. Playing against the wind, and struggling to keep pace with La Salette’s outside attack and especially their ability to offload out of contact, St Edward was unable to close the gap.
The Eagles scored late but La Salette won it 45-5.
Late Sunday morning, La Salette wrapped up their weekend in a much anticipated match against their fellow Catholic boarding school, St. Martin’s.
With the wind, St. Martin's held the run of play and certainly the field position, as they used the wind to pin La Salette back, and scored a penalty and a try to lead 8-0 at halftime.
St. Martin’s took advantage of the wind, holding La Salette scoreless the entire first half, while scoring one of their own, and slotting a penalty kick from the 40 meter line.
But in the second half, La Salette started the comeback early. A good shove from the pack secured a scrum win against the head; Tobia McQuillin picked up from the back and connected with center Lewis Dittman, and that set up a score out wide. The Lions worked their way down to the St. Martin's tryline and after the forwards bashed it up they were able to get it over out wide.
But it wasn't a big lead—La Salette was only 12-8 up. But another scrum against the head led to another attack and a quick tap that led to another break and another try. That made it 19-8 and as the game progressed, La Salette spent the majority of the rest of the game in the St. Martin's half.
Overall what these games did was turn some more heads as to where La Salette sits in the pecking order. Ranked #14 by GRR, the Lions certainly tightened their grip on top 15 status. Two emphatic wins over teams ranked in the 20s certainly helps that.
