State Championships and Finalists Decided Last Weekend

05.30.2023HS Boys

Champions were crowned and championship matchups were decided in Boys HS rugby this weekend and here's a look at what happened outside of the HS National Championships.

Indiana

Saturday saw the semifinals throughout the state and Monday, Memorial Day, offered a chance for the finals. Pendleton, which had earned a bye to the final, came into Monday have played three tough game at Nationals Thursday through Saturday.

They had lost those two of those games but were competitive, nd hung on desperately to beat Layton Christian for 7th in the HS Club category. Now, with a day's rest, they faced a very good Westside Black Swarm team. The game was close throughout and on a hot day the amount of rugby the Arabians played started to catch up with them. Westside clawed back to tie the game and after a ten-minute overtime, it was still tied, 20-20. So on to kicks. After the first five, they were still tied. So now it was sudden death kicks—after each round if one team had missed and the other hit, the game was over.

Pendleton flyhalf Nick Trout slotted the game-winner and Pendleton had their state title.

Leo beat Louisville to take D2.

New Jersey

For the 5th time the St. Augustine Hermits took the New Jersey single-school final, beating Christian Brothers Academy 15-5.

Flanker Alex Yurgin, captain and hooker Domenic Kerry, and No. 8 Brandon Bispo scored tries for St. Augustine—Kerry was named player of the game.

Morris won the HS Club title 34-17. Ayden Gomez scored three tries in the game.

Wisconsin

Pulaski and Green Bay will face off in the Wisconsin state final after both won semifinals this weekend. Pulaski defeated Muskego 44-24, and the Leprechauns handled Elkhorn 36-10.

Michigan

A week after surprising everyone with their win over Detroit Central Catholic, Traverse City went into the Michigan state final only to be undone by Rockford 48-29. Howell took the D2 title over West Ottawa.

Ohio

Like Pendleton, St. Ignatius had to play four games this weekend. After taking 4th among single-schools in the HS National Championships, Ignatius had to play a Varsity semifinal and also a JV semifinal. They won both, 61-3 over St. Xavier for the Varsity semifinal. Archbishop Moeller edged St. Edward 19-18 in the other semi.

"[St. Edward] is a well-coached team," said Moeller coach Steve Kuhlman. "Their defense is always heads up looking at their assignments and they shoot up quick."

The St. Ed's backs were very talented, but so were those of Moeller. Flyhald Eli Jacon Duffy and inside center Ryan Mechley both played very well. Up front prop Nate Schmidt and No. 8 Robbie Saylor led.

"Eli made great reads and passes," said Kuhlmn. "He had nice try where he read a gap and split a few defenders for a score. Defensively he had a few punishing hits and played well."

Mechley's defensive performance was perhaps his best of the season and he made three huge line breaks, one of which set up a try. Schmidt scored and almost got a second, while Saylor led as captain and was a key ground-gainer who created gaps for others.

SIHS won their JV game also 57-8 over Moeller's JV. Meanwhile, there were moe divisions in action. Withrow will face Warrior in the D2 final this coming weekend in Obetz, Ohio after both won semis by fairly wide margins. Olentangy got by St. Charles in the Ohio Club semifinal 20-7, and Hudson defeated Northern Force out of Dayton 31-17.

In the Ohio single-school D2 semis both Dublin and Medina won via shutout.

All the semifinal winners will play their finals in Obetz this coming weekend.