The past week saw several state champions crowned in Boys HS rugby, with New York, Connecticut, and Illinois all seeing championship games.
Here's a roundup:
Illinois
Glen Ellyn ran out to a 24-7 lead and held off Notre Dame de la Salette 36-29 in the Illinois Boys D1 final.
Zane Cross, Dylan Skodal, and Morley Coval led the scoring for Glen Ellyn as they established their lead. However, discipline problems crept in and two concurrent yellow cards to Glen Ellyn put them down to 13 players. La Salette is too smart not to take advantage and they clawed back.
However, once Glen Ellyn was back at full strength, two tries from Joey Pope sealed the game.
Massachusetts HS Finals Finalized
Connecticut
In a thriller Fairfield Prep held off Greenwich HS 33-28. Brice Muller scored two tries for Fairfield with Malachi Mercer-Robinson and Conor Fitzsimons also touching down. As he has all season, Nicolas Vittoria was a points machine, converting four tries and scoring one himself for a personal haul of 13.
In a back-and-forth game that saw the lead change hands several times, Greenwich scored first and seemed to have scored last, also, taking the lead with four minutes left. But with time essentially up, Fairfield got a penalty and kicked to touch. They won the lineout, drove the maul, and Fitzsimons scored with no time left to put his side ahead.
June 10, said Fairfield Head Coach Kevin Kery,, "was an amazing day for rugby in the state of Connecticut, and especially for Fairfield Prep Rugby. Claiming our first state title and defeating a top level program like Greenwich is the culmination of all of the hard work and dedication that members of this team have put in since the beginning of this season, as well as their careers. We leaned on our senior leadership who have spent their careers supporting one another, pushing one another, celebrating every victory and sharing in each defeat: together I am so unbelievably proud of each and every one of these young men and what they have accomplished, both on and off the pitch. They have confirmed, under no uncertain terms, that Fairfield Prep Rugby is not going away anytime soon.”
Greenwich has been the dominant school team in Connecticut for a very long time, so this result certainly has ripples.
In D2, Midstate Rugby beat the Fairfield Rugby Club 18-12.
