St. Ignatius of Cleveland took the lead in their Cavoli Cup series against local rivals St. Edward.
The Cup is named after a beloved and respected teach who taught at both schools, and is awarded based on results not only with the Varsity sides, but their B-sides and Freshmen teams as well.
On the day, St. Edward took the Freshmen game 27-10 backed by four spectacular tries from their dangerous outside backs. The St. Ignatius Bs pulled away late to win 38-19 in a match that was far close than the score indicates.
And in the Varsity match, card trouble spelled trouble for a hard-hitting St. Edward team as Ignatius won 27-7.
The Varsity match was played a high speed and with high intensity, with St. Edward determined to take time and space away from Ignatius by firing up into their faces. It worked, for the most part, as Ignatius struggled to make consistent heady.
Still Ignatius did score first. The Wildcats worked their way to the line, were stopped, but attacked off the goalline drop before hands-out put wing Jimmy Riley in at the corner. Riley was tackled as he made the line and did well to stay in the field of play and touch it down.
A series of mistakes and penalties made things difficult for Ignatius. A kick to touch on a penalty rolled dead, giving St. Edward a scrum near midfield. A penalty off that scrum and then a couple more penalties and the Eagles were threatening the line. Somehow Ignatius held on and forced a knock-on.
Eventually St. Edward marched their way down again and the forwards crashed over. Conversion good and St. Edward led 7-5.
It stayed that way through a number of close calls. Ignatius had numbers to cause trouble but couldn’t get ball out of the ruck quickly enough to capitalize, and St. Edward will rue some scoreless entries into the Ignatius 22.
At the end of the first half St. Edward was again right on the Ignatius line, however, the Wildcats held. And what was worse, an off-the-ball incident put St. Edward down a player with a red card.
In the second half, shorthanded or no, the effort put into their defense work started to tell on St. Edward. Ignatius started to get overloads, but the Eagles did enough defensively to ensure they couldn’t exploit.
However, the pressure showed. A nifty break by fullback Hank McGowan and then quick ball from scrumhalf Harrison White to prop Rowan Lobozzo got St. Ignatius close. They then worked their short yardage pattern and were able to score.
A brilliant kick from flyhalf Connor Gallagher (whose kicking for space and touch has been exceptional) set up another short yardage situation, but Edward held on.
Time was now not the Eagles’ friend and Ignatius got one off the back of a maul before center Levi Hoffman somehow got it down in traffic.
Now it was 22-7. Both teams were now down a play as two players received yellow cards, one from each team. That opened things up a bit, but not a lot. With time winding down Ignatius once again was in their short yardage pattern whenWhite saw wing Matt Callieri all alone. White lofted a loopy pass over everyone, Calleri caught it and dove over for the final try.
“That was a fight,” said St. Edward Head Coach Greg Miranda. “Falling into card trouble was hard to recover from.”
“It was a tough game,” said Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik. “Five tries to one, against an opponent that is always going to come hard at us.”
For Ignatius, Gallagher’s ability to turn the field with his boot is hard to overstate. Repeatedly he sent the ball 40-60 meters with it bouncing near the touchline and rolling out. But the Ignatius train depends on the engine that is their forwards. Prop Grayson Halkiadakis was a revelation thundering through tackles. Blindside flanker Jacob Shepard was tenacious in pouncing on loose ball and generally being a pest around the breakdown.
And Lobozzo was impressive throughout.
Next up for St. Edward is another in-state rival in Archbishop Moeller. Meanwhile, St. Ignatius renews their rivalry with Gonzaga College HS in DC.
