Staples, Greenwich to Meet in Connecticut Final

The second half was, according to Head Coach Neal Seiderman, the best half of rugby Staples had played all season. Like Greenwich, Staples has had its moments, but at HS Nationals, hampered by the flu, they didn't perform well until the final day when they edged Jesuit of Sacramento 23-21. Behind at halftime against Trumbull, they turned it around with their forwards. Senior captains Brandon Saunders and George Engels led the effort up front with prop Ari Perkins and flanker Noah Fraas helping wear down the Trumbull pack.

With that done, and with the aforementioned injury issues in the Trumbull backline, Staples started to find space out wide. Trumbull got into penalty trouble and wing David Sedrak made them pay with penalty goals—the team wisely decided to just whittle away at the lead. Flyhalf Eoin Cuddy was brilliant in his distribution and was assisted nice by center Benji Titlebaum, who came on in the second half and was a bull running through Trumbull's China shop. Fullback Sam Pirkl helped nullify the Trumbull exits with his counter-attacks and his two try-saving tackles helped preserve the Staples lead.

While Smith managed to get one more over for Trumbull, it was Staples that controlled the second half and capped it all off with a try near the end by Titlebaum. But it was a close-run thing for a while.

Thursday's final will be the third time Staples and Greenwich will have met. They played in the regular season, with Staples emerging 28-16 winners. At Nationals, it was Greenwich that took the game, winning 30-12 in the 5th-place semi. It's safe to say both teams are different from when they played previously.