St. Ignatius of Cleveland hosts Gonzaga of Washington DC Saturday in Ohio and this is one of the better rivalries in IS rugby.
For years Ignatius passed up chances to go to HS Nationals and instead one of their benchmarks for a great season was beating Gonzaga—this is something they did frequently enough for Gonzaga to circle this game every year. In 2021 they finally met at Nationals, with Ignatius beating the Eagles in the semifinals—Gonzaga would go on to take third and Ignatius 2nd to Herriman.
The next year Ignatius beat Gonzaga in the national final, but in 2023, while they met, as usual, in the regular season (a convincing win for Gonzaga) they didn't meet at the national championship as Ignatius lost a close game to Jesuit Sacramento in the semis. Gonzaga went on to take the title and Ignatius took 4th.
So this game isn't an automatic national championship preview by any means, but it is a high-level matchup.
"They will be a tough challenge," said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. "They will run hard, contest aggressively at the breakdown, and be very organized and structured in how they play. We will need to lift our game to another level."
03.22.2024HS Boys
Add to that the fact that this is a road game for Gonzaga makes it even more difficult.
(The St. Ignatius football/lacrosse/rugby stadium is under refitting right now so the game will be played at a nearby venue.)
"They will have that home advantage energy which we will have to weather," warned Baggetta. Tracking form, Gonzaga has been very good, coming off victories over Gregory the Great, Fort Hunt, Vienna, Raleigh Redhawks, and Charlotte Cardinals. Some of those wins have been by large margins, but Vienna and, even more so, Charlotte, provided stern tests.
That makes Baggetta wary, and clearly there is respect between the players and coaching staff.
"Gonzaga continues to be the standard by which teams on the East Coast measure themselves," said St. Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik. "Their coaching staff does a phenomenal job of getting the kids ready to play. And it isn't just about 'game-day' prep. It's clear that they have a cohesiveness and team identity that makes it a real challenge for even a club with a lot of 'star' players."
For Arbeznik, the St. Ignatius performances have not been sufficiently complete to warrant national championships talk. They beat Georgetown Prep and Penn by convincing margins, but lost to Pendleton in a game that was a marker for the Indiana club as well as a wakeup call for the Ohio school.
Pendleton Defeats St. Ignatius in Cross-Border Battle
"We're still trying to galvanize exactly what our identity is," he said. "We'll learn a lot about ourselves this weekend. We're grateful to Pendleton who pointed out some big areas for improvement," said Arbeznik. "Our kids responded well to that and put together a good showing last week against Penn. So now we'll see how those lessons carry over against the team who has to be the 'favorite' to win the National Championship this year.
