St. Augustine won a key game against Cathedral Catholic in Southern California’s Varsity Red division.

In a clash of two teams looking to make the playoffs, St. Augustine won 38-27, with scrumhalf Ethan McVeigh playing superbly, scoring two tries and kicking well, also. Cathedral’s No. 8, Miles McCormick, scored two tries for his side and was a handful all night.

McVeigh has been showing some excellent form of late. He looked good in the early going of the HS All American Winter Camp, only to get injured in the first game against the Canadians. However, he bounced back from that shoulder injury.

“I love going to camp,” said McVeigh. “It’s 24-7 rugby, living it, breathing it. I was bummed to hurt my shoulder, but I did get 15 or 20 minutes against Canada and I really enjoyed that.”

Now back with his school team, McVeigh has a very young group to help along. But its working.

“We have a really good culture at St. Augustine,” said McVeigh. “The varsity shows up for the JV no matter how far the trip is. The work ethic of the team is probably one of the things I enjoy the most.”

Against Cathedral, the game wasn’t perfect for either team - the rain made for some ball handling errors.

“Coming into the game, we knew this was a rivalry game, we were all super-anxious for the game but also ready for the competition,” said McVeigh. “All the boys were really focused. We had a really good week of practice. It was a bit of a scrappy game, but we self-managed what we needed to do.”

Lock Joe Patalano had one of his best games, and his rangy gate saw him chase down several kicks to put Cathedral under pressure. He also chased down a McVeigh box kick to score a try.

But McVeigh was also quick to praise his opponents.

“Miles McCormick was just an absolute animal, all over the field, in every play.”

With the victory, St. Augustine moved to 2-1, and Cathedral fell to 2-1. Torrey Pines (3-1), and LCC (4-0) are ahead of them.