In a meeting of two top-10 school teams, St. Ignatius of Cleveland held off Gonzaga College HS 28-21 Saturday.
Played at Gonzaga’s home field in Washington, DC, this match was part of three matches across age levels, with all of the games very close. It was a warm, sunny day, which was a nice change for Ignatius, which has been enduring a rather harsh winter.
Gonzaga scored first and they scored last, but will rue a 40-minute period in which they gave up all of their points.
Four minutes in Gonzaga opened the scoring. Their defense forced a turnover in the middle of the field and scrumhalf Jimmy Ries popped a perfect attacking box kick. Andrew Casteleyn chase it down, took the ball on the high bounce, and was in at the corner. It was a brilliant piece of skill from Ries and Casteleyn made it even better by converting from the touchline.
Down 7-0 Ignatius seemed unfazed, getting back into their game plan of working the ball from sideline to sideline. Gonzaga’s defense was, generally, up for it during the game and did well to absorb the charges from the big runners such as Grayson Halkiadakis and Quinn Ferris. Both teams forced turnovers when on defense, but that, along with a fairly equal kicking contest, meant that much of the next few minutes were played in the middle of the field. Ignatius, however, were held up at one point, seeing a scoring chance gone begging.
Finally, however, Ignatius got a penalty and took the attacking lineout inside Gonzaga’s 22. The Wildcats unleashed their short yardage work and Rowan Lobozzo was over, continuing the prop’s try-scoring streak.
Gonzaga continued to defend doggedly but again infringed. From the lineout Ignatius ran a maul before going outside for Ferris, playing outside center, get them close. The Wildcats made it down to the tryline, and lock Tommy Cummings picked up and was over.
Levi Hoffman converted both tries and it was now 14-7 for the visitors.
That Moment ...
As the first half was ticking down Gonzaga was certainly not out of it and the Eagles had the ball and work working their pattern. But they perhaps telegraphed their intentions a bit too much and Cummings, who plays wing in 7s so has some pace for a lock, zipped in to intercept a pass and race 50 meters to score under the posts. With Hoffman’s conversion it was now 21-7 at halftime.
Early-on in the second half the hill became steeper for the hosts. Ignatius chased their kickoff, pinned Gonzaga deep, and eventually earned a couple of lineouts. The second of these they faked a maul, surged to the line and, after a couple of pick-and-drives, Halkiadakis dove over. Conversions good and it was 28-7 for Ignatius.
Gonzaga almost responded immediately. A tackle at the base of the ruck knocked the ball loose and the ball was toed ahead. It rolled tantalizingly to the goalline and looked set to be a try for Gonzaga except that wing Matt Callieri got on his horse and raced back and to the middle where he dove on the ball just before the Eagles could get to it. It was one of those plays that don’t make the box score but should.
Gonzaga kept up the pressure and after Ignatius cleared they took a quick lineout and zipped the ball wide to target the opposite corner. However, Hoffman and Ben Stefan were there to save things for Ignatius and Gonzaga would come away with nothing.
