Wild Day One at HS Championships
Wild Day One at HS Championships
It was a day of thrillers in the opening round of the Boys HS National Championships Thursday.
One game went to overtime. One game was won on the final play. Several others games were on a knife edge until late.
Here's a quick rundown:
Tier II
St. Edward came in as the #8 seed and promptly marched right down to score the opening try against top seed SOC Raptors. The Raptors' physicality in contact and speed of play saw them equalize and they scored again to take the lead.
But St. Edward defended bravely and didn't go away. Raptors did enough thanks to a couple of impressive breakaway tries, but it was much more difficult than they expected. Raptors 28 St. Edward 12.
Raptor out of Tennessee were too big and powerful for St. Thomas Aquinas. With Aquinas struggling to stick their tackles and Raptor moving the ball quickly it was constant pressure from the Tennessee team. Wyatt Appleton, Jasper Quesenberry, Gavin Trussell, Jake Orefice, Wyatt Appleton, and Grant Webber all scored tries in a 38-0 Raptor win.
Fyhalf Owen Stopforth ran things superbly and with Orefice at center and No. 8 Sarp Kundakci challenging defenders, it was a good start for Raptor.
New Trier's power and unity saw them take an early lead against Eastside and keep it going, winning 28-5.
The game of the day in this bracket was KC Jr. Blues vs Fort Hunt. This was back and forth. One team would score and the other would answer. The teams were tied with tries from Aalee Rashid and Roth Schumaker for Fort Hunt while Kade Giegerich and Luke Connell scored for KC.
With the half about to end a long sequence from KC saw them put Auggie Johnson through for a lead at the break.
Nana Bekoe scored for Fort Hunt, Giegerich answered. At was like that. Carter Brown and Clark Brown scored for Fort Hunt, but the wind made conversions difficult and they ended up with just the one, accounting for 27. KC Jr. Blues capped off their scoring with a Gage Nelson try and they converted two. KC 29 Fort Hunt 27.
HS Club
Top-seed Charlotte Cardinals looked to put San Mateo Wolverines away early, but they couldn't, as the Wolverines were able to get a try in the opening minutes and hang close. The Cardinals' pace of play was impressive, however, and they managed to cover a couple of Wolverine breaks.
San Mateo battled, but Charlotte's brilliant team play saw them through 53-1.
Cavemen raced out to a 20-5 lead only to see the Charlotte Tigers storm back to make it 20-19. Cavemen, led by Leo Esikia, went over twice late to win it. Briggs Love and Patimosi Afu Liufau scored to seal it.
San Diego Mustangs were also bashed a bit early by The Woodlands. San Diego struck first, but Woodlands answered and took a penalty to inch closer at 19-8. A penalty against San Diego resulted in a well-taken lineout and maul for a try and a 19-13 as halftime approached.
San Diego answered well with a try just before halftime. The second half was almost all San Diego, with Will Barrett and Spencer Huntley leading the way. Mustangs 50 Woodlands 18.
But the game of the day here was Belmont Shore vs LCA. This game was enormously physical and while the defenses worked hard the contest produced 75 points. Emil Pauni scored two early tries for LCA while Belmont Shore got tries from Jaden Hernandez and Preston Leomiti. Those two were impressive and Kolotolu Liti was also outstanding. LCA's offense was helped by their center pairing of Penisoni Talanoa and Viliami Halalilo.
They kept it up, back and forth. Belmont Shore took a 15-14 lead into the halftime break. LCA started the second half looking very dangerous and scored a couple of tries and a penalty to lead 31-22. Belmont Shore answered after getting an offside call on a ick. They kicked to touch and eventually scored out wide through Hernandez again.
Belmont Shore kept the ball well late but also found themselves forcing some passes. A loose pass allowed Jasiah Lolesio-Pua to scoop up the ball, make someone miss, and race in to score.
LCA answered with a penalty and it was 34-34.
With time winding down LCA had the ball and sent a loose pass that was picked up by flyhalf Lenny Ibarra, and he was gone from long range. That ended it, 41-34, and it was a thriller.
Single-School
Top-seeded St. Ignatius ran into a very tough-minded Greenwich HS team and were under tons of pressure. Ignatius marched down and scored early through the forwards. They did it again, working their pattern and putting hooker Liam Burrows over. Up 12-0 Ignatius seemed in control. They were not. Greenwich exploited penalties and turnovers very well and tries from Floris Van de Rotte and Sean Carroll made it 12-12 at halftime.
With the wind Ignatius seemed to be in a better position to score, and they did, riding some hard runs from center Trent Latkovic and forward Adam Bornhorst. From there they worked their short-range attack plan for Jacob Papesh to score.
But they pushed it a bit, sending a loose pass that led to Greenwich scoring through Santiago Latuada. That made it 19-17 Ignatius. Twice Ignatius had the ball right on the line and failed to score—knock-on, penalty—but they did manage to keep Greenwich pinned in their half. Finally Greenwich was offside off a kick, Ignatius took the scrum in the Greenwich 22, worked it, going backward at times, and finally sending fullback Levi Hoffman through and over in traffic.
That was it. Ignatius was never comfortable and Greenwich was never out of it, but somehow Ignatius held on. Latkovic was immense on the day, and flanker Charlie Worthington put in a key shift, along with prop Andrew Morris working hard, as well.
Jesuit of Sacramento started strong against Notre Dame de la Salette and took a 10-0 lead. But ND started to make their tackles and run their pattern well. They took points when they were on offer—Connor Handlon had a good day kicking for goal—and they inched their way closer.
In the second half La Salette had the wind, scored tries, and pulled away 28-22. It was an impressive showing from La Salette.
Gonzaga scored early and worked their kicking game to make things difficult on Herriman. It did, for a while. But as the halves changed Herriman kicked back a bit more, and did a better job playing territory.
Full time ended with the score 19-19.
In the overtime, Herriman exploded with a high-intensity attack. "We finally started playing well," said Herriman Head Coach Jeff Wilson. The result was three unanswered tries. Final score 38-19, but it was overtime nonetheless. Gonzaga has missed the semifinals for the first time in about 17 years, but they are young and resilient and almost pulled it off.
Xavier kept winning the scrums and lineouts, but kept losing the ball in contact. Strake Jesuit, the #7 seed, played a smart territorial game but their failure to win secure lineout ball meant they couldn't converted on most of their scoring chances.
The result was a game in which Strake led Xavier 7-5 at halftime.
Xavier used the wind well in the second half but could not get the try until well into the second half. Then, finally, they started to play with some confidence. With wings Ethan Mok and Adam Boulamaali making some ground and Will Scariano running things well at scrumhalf, Xavier scored quickly to turn a 10-7 nailbiter into a 22-7 win.
Head Coach Greg Norris urged patience, and they showed it.
"We had hardly been giving up tries and then we played St. Ignatius and we panicked a bit," said Norris. "We learned from that and stayed patient and didn't panic against a really good team."
So, moving on, here's how Day Two looks:
Tier II Semifinals
SOC Raptors vs Raptor Tennessee
KC Jr. Blues vs New Trier
Tier II 5th-Place Semifinals
St. Edward vs St. Thomas Aquinas
Fort Hunt vs Eastside
HS Club Semifinals
Charlotte Cardinals vs Belmont Shore
Cavemen vs San Diego Mustangs
HS Club 5th-Place Semifinals
San Mateo Wolverines vs LCA
Charlotte Tigers vs The Woodlands
Single-School Semifinals
St. Ignatius vs Notre Dame de la Salette
Xavier vs Herriman
Single-School 5th Place
Greenwich vs Jesuti Sacramento
Strake Jesuit vs Gonzaga
