Rivalry Plus as St. Ignatius and St. Edward Face Off for the Cavoli Cup

03.13.2026HS Boys

St Edward vs St. Ignatius from 2024. Photo Jack Nece.

Author: Alex Goff

Coming off wins with distinctly different feels, St. Edward and St. Ignatius will light up the Cleveland area with a major rivalry game.

These two schools compete intensely in every sport, and rugby is one of their most competitive. This past week St. Ignatius came away with a 29-17 win over Notre Dame de la Salette in which they fell behind 17-10 before scoring three tries to win it.

For the team as a whole and Head Coach Dan Arbeznik in particular, it was a less-than-perfect performance from the Wildcats. Their front-line kicker was at a choir competition, and they left some points unclaimed as a result, but the main issue from the players was a lack of intensity, especially on defense. Little basic errors such as poor body height and not marking up on defense hurt them early.

However, the players did straighten that out, simplified their approach in tough weather.

Meanwhile, St. Edward beat St. Xavier 41-10 to earn a spot at the Boys HS National Championships (this was a specific play-in game). For St. Edward, they have a good combination of athletic players with rugby experience, and coming off two years where they performed quite well at the national tournament, the Eagles want more.

St. Ed's

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3.14.26
7:30pm

SIHS Cleveland

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This has all been part of the building Head Coach Greg Miranda has done for the program, which has grown for a low point of 40 players up to 111 or so. Miranda came in and instituted some strict fitness, attendance, and academic standards that players responded to, and the results have shown that.

Program-Wide Rivalry

This game will be a league game at the varsity level and for the 2nd sides, as well, but this is a program-wide competition. The Cavoli Cup is named after Dan Cavoli, who was Valedictorian at St. Ignatius and then taught at the school for about 10 years before moving to St. Edward, where he taught for close to 30 years. Dan Cavoli was not an athlete or a coach, he was a teacher and mentor, and was highly respected at both schools.

The St. Edward and St. Ignatius rugby teams compete through a variety of age levels from Freshmen to Varsity, with every game counting toward who takes the Cup. Ignatius won it in 2025, the first year of the Cavoli Cup. Year two will see the first of two evenings of competition, with the Freshmen, Varsity B, and Varsity A sides playing throughout Saturday night.