Leading single-school teams had a good weekend this week, although some games were a little bit tougher than others.
Gonzaga on the Rise
Gonzaga had encountered a couple of rough early results with a squad that is a bit less experienced than most. The Eagles then went to Italy where they played Rugby Rovigo Delta and Rugby Colorno with multiple sides. Losing to some top club teams in Italy isn't something to be ashamed of and Head Coach peter Baggetta told GRR that winning isn't the purpose, anyway.
"A tour is always helpful for us," said Baggetta. "We rarely win games on tour because we make sure to schedule tough opponents, often academy teams and sometimes national teams. This year we went 0-6, just like last year. The year before were were 1-5."
The point, of course, is to expose players to a higher level. With a front-line squad of 25 that has six seniors—a very low number for Gonzaga—that kind of experience is critical. The result was, this week, a 50-14 win over St. Edward out of Cleveland, Ohio.
"Overall a good performance for us," said Baggetta. "We think we now know our top 25 going forward. It took us the first seven games to get there."
Ignatius Finishing Strong
St. Ignatius has a habit of scoring tries late to pull away and this week was no different. An intercept try and one helped along by penalties saw St. Xavier of Cincinnati score on the Cleveland team, but Ignatius took a 28-14 lead into halftime. As the game wore on, and despite some unforced errors, the Wildcats built on that lead and ended up winning 64-14.
There were some bright spots for St. Xavier, notable inside center and captain Sam McNab and try-scorers Nate Hodapp and Mikey Ealy. But Ignatius, especially their forwards, were powerful in contact and finished well. Jacob Papesh and newly-minted Naval Academy commit Connor Bender were very good, while flanker Mason Hartley was tireless and produced one of the more impressive tries of the day. The best might have been Chris Perez's effort when he saw a chance for a grubber, regathered his kick and outpaced the chasers. Or it might have been a nice interplay of offloads for Jimmy Coughlin to score in the corner.
Rafe Gabrovsek continues to be very difficult to play against.
