It’s an all-Ohio final in the Midwest single-school boys HS tournament as St. Ignatius and St. Edward won their quarterfinals and semifinals Saturday in Elkhart, Ind.

The day included some major surprises, not least of which was St. Edward defeating GRR #2 Penn HS 20-10.

Tamara Tidey photo.

That came on the heels of St. Ed’s defeating Notre Dame de La Salette, another team ranked ahead of them. 

“We played our game,” said St. Edward Head Coach Tom Cleary. “We tackled everything that moved and we got a big team effort.”

Led by the scoring touch of center Ryan Bradfield, flyhalf Jack Bradfield, and No. 8 Owen Hundt, St. Edward handled dealing with larger forward packs. 

“It was technique proper form,” said Cleary. 

Meanwhile Penn Head Coach Bart Bottorff said his team didn’t execute well. It was mistakes that cost them against St. Edward.

Thanks for continuing to cover high school rugby.  It was a decent day for us. We were looking forward to a rematch with penn (our only loss came to them on the first match of the season) but I guess we'll have to wait until next year. 

St. Edward will play St. Ignatius in the final - oddly the two teams, 3-0 in league play in Ohio DI North, will face off on Wednesday in a key league game. Cleary said his team is looking forward to the two-fer. Meanwhile, St. Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik said his team is 2-0, but can do better.

“Our kids played well enough to win, but certainly didn't play a complete game in either match,” said Arbeznik. “Once we can go the full 60, we'll be a dangerous side. The best aspect of our day was that our kids really did a nice job generating offense in the kicking game. We struggled with our discipline in the 2nd match against Brownsburg, and played most of the minutes on the defensive.”

St. Ignatius flyhalf Michael Mathews did an excellent job with his clearance kicks and also scored three tries. Fullback Andrew Baldado also kicked well from the hand and the kicking tee. His conversions proved to be the difference against Brownsburg, as Ignatius was up 26-12 with five minutes to go, but Brownsburg controlled the ball for the rest of the game, and scored two tries. But they didn’t convert those tries, and Ignatiu held on.

Arbeznik is under no illusions about Sunday’s final.

“The real story of the day was St. Edward,” he said. “To say they controlled the matches against La Salette and Penn would be an understatement. They dominated every facet of the game. It'll be a tough match for us.”

Penn plays Brownsburg for 3rd. Meanwhile, La Salette dominated West Catholic 60-0 to reach the Plate Final, where they face Pulaski, who lost to Brownsburg 12-7 and then shut out Brother Rice 21-0.

In the multi-school bracket, Royal Irish is, as expected, in the final, beating Pickerington 26-5 and then Birmingham 50-0. They did this despite missing a large segment of their roster due to SATs and prom. And at one point what was left of the Royal Irish roster had to play a varsity and JV game at the same time. The varsity outfit won using one sub.

"The first game was slow - a lot of whistles," said Royal Irish Head Coach Scott Peterson. "Our forwards did a good job winning our ball, and the backs were OK in the first game and I thought really good in the second."

Wing Matt Bates had something of a breakout day at a time when he was needed. In Sunday's final, Royal Irish will face Fishers, who beat Catholic Central and Brunswick in two very touch, close games.

Bishop Dwenger faces Pickerington in the multi-school Plate Final.