In yet another tight midweek ballgame between Catholic schools, Salesianum of Delaware weathered a comeback by New Jersey's St. Augustine to score late and win 24-19.

Salesianum went up 12-0 early thanks to tried from Luke Love and Ethan Corrozi (and one conversion from Zach Ottinger) and held onto that lead into halftime. But the St. Augustine Hermits responded well in the second half, scoring three tries and taking the lead 19-12. The Hermits bench showed up nicely in this game.

Flyhalf Chris Giunta also sparked the comeback, scoring two of the three St. Augustine tries, while fullback Will Bumbernick went over for the first try. Giunta converted Bumbernick's effort and one of his own.

Salesianum responded with a try from Seamus Flaherty, converted by Ottinger, and it was all tied up for the final 15 minutes or so.

Late in the game Sallies got a penalty in the St. Augustine half and kicked for the corner. From that lineout, Salesianum went short to prop Joey Olive, who barrelled through four potential tacklers down the tramline and over for the game-winner.

"What a battle," enthused St. Augustine Head Coach Brendan Towell. The sportsmanship was the best I’ve seen in a long time and all the boys hung for a bit after."

"It was an intense and hard fought game from start to finish," added Salesianum Head Coach Christopher Wells. "Win or lose it was an amazing match. As a team, Salesianum played very good defense and kept a high tempo throughout the game. We have not had a team that played with this level of intensity in a very long time. It was the 4th of four 15s matches we were able to play this season. It is a good and balanced team team that could have potentially competed with anybody under normal circumstances."

Wells reiterated the camaraderie Towell spoke of.

"These two teams were awesome last night," he said.

For St. Augustine, Giunta, and Bumbernick were excellent, while junior center Vinnie Masci also had a standout game. 

Olive had the clutch play at the end, and Flaherty, a lock, was a hard runner and tackled ferociously all day. Flanker Dean Lawrence, Ottinger at flyhalf, and DJ Morales and Corrozi in the backs were dangerous with ball in hand and tackled well.

The game was filmed by Salesianum's TV department, and can be seen below.

Salesianum Rugby v. Georgetown Prep (MD) from Salesianum on Vimeo.