Staples, Greenwich to Meet in Connecticut Final
Staples, Greenwich to Meet in Connecticut Final
Greenwich HS will face off with Staples HS in the Rugby Connecticut Boys HS final Thursday night after both won semifinals over the past few days.
Greenwich had little trouble beating a solid Fairfield Prep side 41-7. The Greenwich team, which had been up and down through much of the year, seemed to find some of its form at the Boys HS National Championship tournament (albeit against tough opposition) and put much of it together in the semi.
The other semifinal between Staples and up-and-coming Trumbull was quite different. In a hugely physical encounter, Staples rode a really strong second half to win 42-21. But the score belies how difficult it was for Staples.
Trumbull scored early to take a 14-0 lead—both tries by Corbin Smith—and held on to finish the half up 14-7. But it had been a long season for Trumbull and injuries, especially in the backline, started to pile up.
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.
