St Edward defeated Walsh Jesuit by a wide margin in a midweek Rugby Ohio clash at St Ed's Lakewood campus.

Walsh Jesuit is a smaller school that is trying to build something and had some good moments. With scrumhalf Paul Savage battling well in traffic and center Tristan Kahle and No. 8 Keith Perrotto getting some go-forward and laying in some hits, they showed they can play rugby. But St. Ed's despite several players being out with injury, were more together, generally bigger, and fitter.

The Eagles scored after a few early minutes where both teams seemed determined to give up possession. Eventually St. Edward got a penalty and powered over. They spent a good portion of time in the Walsh half but little skill breakdowns made it hard to score—twice on the evening St. Edward put a wing over in the corner untouched only for the try to be called back for a forward pass that didn't really need to happen.

A powerful run from prop Angel Marrero, and followed that up with some more good work from the forwards leading for the third.

A well-taken eightman pick from Kaden Williamson made it 26-0 with scrumhalf Will Perrins' conversion, and the scoring began to open up.

Walsh had trouble kicking out of their own end, and also struggled to win lineout ball consistently. But they ran hard and didn't let up on the tackling. St. Ed's was too quick on the ball and moved the ball too quickly.

Still, they were a little imprecise, understandably so given how many starting backs were out after playing Royal Irish this past weekend. Several players saw their first A-side starts for St. Edward and played with enthusiasm and aggression.

Marrero and Williams combined for five tries. Perrins had 22 points from the boot. The St. Edward tight five was very solid, especially in the scrum, and flyhalf Jake Capel played confidently and had some excellent moments making his first A-side start, and at a key decision-making position.

For St. Edward, this wasn't a result to celebrate more than it was a box to check on the way to taking on an Archbishop Moeller team that beat them last year. For Walsh, what they should have taken away was that they can hang with the big dogs, but they need to be fitter and a bit more cohesive to hang for longer.