St. Ignatius won the Rugby Ohio Boys fall 7s championships in a difficult and contentious final Sunday, battling (as did everyone) rain and mud as well as a talented St. Xavier HS outfit to get there.
Eight boys teams competed on the day in a tournament that had to be moved at the last minute due to rain making it impossible to line the original fields. The tournament was held on a grass pitch at a middle school in Dublin, Ohio and while the playing surface was good, the wet weather made for a muddy day all around.
The teams played a straight bracket format, with the opening games being the quarterfinals, and then everyone splintering off into placement semis and finals after that.
In the first round St. Xavier shut out a tough Dublin side 21-0 in a game where St. X had three tries called back. The Bombers unleashed a multi-skilled side that had power to spare, meaning even dropped balls worked out in their favor as they could usually win the scrums regardless of whose put-in it was.
With Oliver Weidner pulling the strings and kicking almost flawlessly for points regardless of how the ball bounced, Alexander Samson was a dangerous to burn defenders and Phil Bottomley was a massive threat to run over or through you. Players like Mason Moor were difficult, too, and they controlled the game nicely.
Medina’s hard-nosed approach saw them past Highland 12-0 in a game that was, unfortunately, marred by a nasty ankle injury to one Highland player—Highland’s day was slammed with injuries and they would finish 8th in part because of them.
Michael Gabriel and Zach Greene scored tries for a Medina team that kept the ball alive nicely and played good defense.
St. Ignatius was put under some significant pressure by the Dayton Nothern Force in their opener and only barely escaped giving up an opening try. Eventually, though, a smart fly-hack down the sideline set up a try for Joe Deinhart and that seemed to get them going as they won 21-0.
St. Edward had all sorts of trouble getting their mojo working against a Moeller side that had designs on a semifinal spot. Moeller had big, hard runners, and so did St. Ed’s. With neither backing down, and there not being a lot of room out wide, this was a slugfest that ended in St. Edward’s favor 5-0.
Consolation Semis
In the consolation semis, Dublin beat Highland 12-7 in overtime when Solomon Harris, who had not scored a try for the team all season, intercepted a Highland pass and took it to the house to win the game.
Moeller power running saw them through over Dayton 10-0.
Cup Semis
The Cup Semifinals pitted rivals St. Ignatius and St. Edward against each other. These teams had already played during the regular season, with Ignatius getting the win. But St. Ed’s, led by the excellent game management and field vision of Conor McGuirk and with Jayden Williams and Owen Schultz taking on defenders and busting through the line they put Ignatius on their heels.
Ignatius wanted to use their elusiveness, but struggled to get that going partly because of the St. Ed’s defense, and partly because of the muddy field. Even so it came down to one of the smaller players on the field as Mark French held strong to score one in the corner and then sold a dummy to open up a hole for another.
With Jimmy Collins making key tackles and being the leader, Davey Kotnik coming on the set the pysical tone, and Christian Balassey finding all kinds of things to do, Ignatius survived 19-5.
The other semifinal put St. X in mind of last year, when a talent Bombers side perhaps looked too far ahead and were upset by Dayton. No such issue here. St. Xavier put Medina under constant pressure, swarming in to throttle their ability to get out of their 22, forcing turnovers, and powering over the line.
Lesson learned from 2022. Bottomley, shifty Sebastien Nies, support-running Landon Smoot, and the entire roster rolled as St. X won 56-0.
