St. Ignatius won the Rugby Ohio Boys Fall 7s championships, unleashing a smart, skilled game plan that pushed aside opponents in all of the preliminary tournaments as well as the finals tournament on Sunday.
The Wildcats ended the fall 18-0, including eight shutouts and a points for-and-against of 668-58.
Led by veteran backs Aiden Pickston and Ryan Putka in the backs, and with Cole Sutkus having a breakout fall as a forward, Ignatius played wide ball, were accurate in their passing, and disciplined and physical in their defense.
The final was something of a surprise, however. Throughout the fall St. Xavier of Cincinnati had been looking to be the main rival for Ignatius. With the Ohio 7s season split between North and South, these two teams never met. Despite losing a game to Archbishop Moeller 21-17 a week before, St. X was favored to be in the final. St. X defeated Perrysburg in Sunday's quarterfinal 38-0 and were an impressive combination of size and speed. With Alex Robinson and Patrick Jennings running with purpose and linking nicely through halfback Oliver Weidner, St. Xavier looked nicely in control.
But along came Highland. The club team came in determined to shake things up and after winning their quarterfinal met St. X with a strong physical presence. St. Xavier ran out to a 10-0 lead, but a knock forward at the tryline prevented them from pulling further ahead.
"I take responsibility for that, that was me on the wing ... it's going to haunt me," said Jennings.
At the end of the first half Highland broke through. with Gabe Blower slicing wide to dive over. Blower provided a nice spark for his team, clearly not wanting to back down. That score made it 10-5 at halftime and Highland hung on, causing a couple of key turnovers in their 22. And then with time up St. Xavier's composure slipped a little. They committed a penalty and got 10 more meters marched off for backtalk. Still, St. X. really just needed to defend and wait for a mistake. Instead, another penalty, this time handling the ball on the ground, opened up a chance for Mitchell Hennessey to break through and feed Kolton Rogers to go under the posts for the try. Hennessey converted and Highland had won 12-10.
"We were playing like we were taught to play in practice," said Hennessey, who added that he felt he held onto the ball too long before sending that pass ... although it seemed to work out in the end.