It's a very active weekend this week.
First off we have a meeting of last year's HS National Championship teams, Gonzaga (Single-School) and Charlotte Cardinals (HS Club). Gonzaga has dropped a bit in GRR's rankings because they lost (wait for it ...) one game! Oh no! The Eagles are, we think, movin' on up and will improve on the things they need to. Charlotte Cardinals have been working together for a couple of weeks after their opening in the Carolina Ruggerfest.
This isn't a peak-of-the-season game, but it should be pretty great.
In Cleveland we have the classic rivalry of St. Ignatius vs St. Edward. This year there is the inauguration of a challenge cup between the two that includes all level of teams ... so freshmen, JV, As and Bs all play and the program earns points in the games. Still the varsity game is a highly-anticipated one, and the new schedule has them playing each other twice.
St. Edward has graduated a ton of players while St. Ignatius has a solid, experience group. But throw all of that out the window in this type of in-city rivalry.
Also of interest: Rye HS travels to Jesuit HS for a bit challenge. SoCal gets going. Vienna visits the up-and-coming Richmond Strikers. Rugby PA kicks off, and there are a ton of questions to answer there. Keep an eye on Gregory the Great at Doylestown.
It's been a pretty tough couple of weeks for Bixby, but they kick off their Oklahoma league this week.
And we start to enter into a series Boys HS National Championship play-in games. This week, Berks plays Aspetuck, and that's a big one.
