St. Ignatius won their big rivalry game with St. Edward in Cleveland, with the #1-ranked Wildcats taking on the #20 Eagles.

The game was played in front of a crowd of at least 2,000 as this is the big high school sports rivalry in the city, with these two teams carrying a proud rugby tradition and being only a short drive from each other.

St. Ignatius want out to a 38-3 lead but ran into penalty trouble through the latter stages of the game. St. Edward scored to make it 38-10, and while Ignatius got another try, Edward had the run of player over Ignatius as the latter had to backpedal ten meters for a series of infractions. Final score 43-17.

RUG: Nate Polinko begins the scoring for the Cats in the 2nd half! With a successful conversion from Bobby Voth, the Wildcats lead the Eagles 31-3! #GoCats

: https://t.co/C7WXXz615j pic.twitter.com/lxvxeO7Zhx

— SIHS Sports (@SIHSSports) April 24, 2022

Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik was pleased with the win and the fact that his younger-grade teams also won their games, but he wasn't overjoyed.

"It's a rivalry game and you have those stop-start elements, a dropped ball, a penalty—it took us about 20 minutes to score," said Arbeznik. "But a game like this is decided by your front eight and it rested on them."

Forwards such as Sean Ward, John Reddy, Tim Putka, and Ed Soeder, to name just four, controlled possession and kept Ignatius going forward. St. Edward unleashed a fairly useful kicking game and played hard in the midfield, but ultimately the night belonged to Ignatius.