Pendleton Opens Account With Win at St. Xavier
Pendleton Opens Account With Win at St. Xavier
An early Midwest cross-border matchup saw 2024 Indiana state winners Pendleton beat 2024 Ohio state finalists St. Xavier 40-8 Saturday in the opener for both teams.
It was difficult weather-wise and early days for both but the teams overcame the weather to put together some good moments of rugby.
At the eight minute mark, Jacob Rowley took a pass from Garrett Pederson and rumbled 40 meters to score and put Pendleton up 5-0. St. Xavier earned a penalty and took the option for the kick, which Jake Schleif slotted to make it 5-3.
But overall the visitors from Indiana seemed to be playing with confidence.
For the next 15 minutes, neither team would score despite moving the ball from one 22 to the other. In the final five minutes of the first half, Pendleton made it down to the St. X tryline. But they knocked-on working a tap penalty move, and then were held up in-goal.
Finally lock and captain Jacob McKlinley broke through and was on his way to paydirt when he was tackled high in the action of scoring—penalty try and a 12-3 Pendleton lead.
Immediately after receiving the restart, the Arabians were in Bomber territory. A nifty line break from prop Zane Davis led to an offload and eventually utility man JJ Kissick found Michael Hooker to finish the movement and score. Isaac Pimental converted and Pendleton took a 19-3 lead into the halftime break
To open the second half, Pendleton kicked to St. Xavier and after one phase had turned the Bombers over. Two phases after consolidating the turnover, the Arabians sent the ball to McKinley, who looked for the inside ball to Kaden Hasty. Hasty ran unscathed to score and with Pimental’s conversion it was 26-3.
Pendleton had another quick scoring opportunity that was squandered. And maybe that frustration stayed with them because later on, when they were penalized in the breakdown, they were marched off an additional 10 meters for backchat. This put St. Xavier in scoring position and Cameron Bowling tapped and powered over to make it 26-8.
Pendleton scored two more after that. Hooker stopped a kick to touch from going out and that led to a n impressive sequence finished by McKinley driving over. Conversion good and it was 33-8. The Arabians wrapped it up after a lineout error from St. X. Taking a free kick Pendleton sent it out to David who Awarded another penalty, St. X attempted to kick to touch, but Hooker lept and prevented the ball from going out. The play allowed Pendleton to execute its best sequence of phases in the game. The sequence saw McKinley finish a goal-line drive recording his second on the day. Pimental secured the conversion and made the score 33 to eight.
The final scoring sequence came from a blocked kick in the Bombers’ 22 that was recovered by Nate DeRolf. Pimental put the icing on the cake with the conversion.
It was an impressive showing for Pendleton, and, in fact, a solid showing in many ways for a young St. Xavier team that graduated a large chunk of their team from 2024. Pendleton plays their next game in two weeks and once again travels to Ohio, this time to face defending Ohio champs St. Ignatius HS.
St. Xavier, meanwhile, will be at Carolina Ruggerfest in the Charlotte area.