Ignatius Edges Royal Irish at Midwest Tourney
Ignatius Edges Royal Irish at Midwest Tourney
In what was probably the climactic game of the Midwest tournament in Elkhart, Ind. Saturday, St. Ignatius held off Royal Irish 14-12 in a physical, sometimes contentious, and thoroughly entertaining game.
The shortened game was the second for both teams, with Royal Irish having beaten a tenacious St. Edward 24-5, and St. Ignatius having shut out HSE 24-0. Going into the second game, Ignatius welcomed back loose forward Marty Lenehan, who had missed the previous meeting (won by Royal Irish 36-12) because of a red card suspension.
But Ignatius was also without all of their seniors, as this was Prom Night.
Going against the win in the first half Ignatius played a smart game, keeping the ball and trying to put Royal Irish under pressure with the ball in hand. It worked, as the only try of the first half went to Ignatius, taken off a turnover in the Royal Irish zone and then a long period of pick-and-go's—nothing too fancy—to finish it off. with Noah Norris crashing over.
Royal Irish could have used the wind advantage better, but the half ended with the Indianapolis-area team committing a penalty for being offside on a kick, and from the ensuing scrum Ignatius kicked the ball into touch happy with a 7-0 lead.
"I would have been happy down only 12-0 at halftime," said Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik.
"We were very unhappy," said Royal Irish captain David Guhl. "Losing at halftime was not acceptable."
The plan for the rest of the game for Royal Irish was to kick for territory and pin Royal Irish back. But Royal Irish responded with more aggressive open play and did well to keep the ball secure. They bashed over for one, and then torched Ignatius for a second, stealing the scrum put-in and eventually sending the ball wide to score in the corner.
Then an interesting almost-turn-of-events. Tommy Hannon lined up the conversion attempt for Royal Irish, but as he kicked it an Ignatius team member wandered onto the field in front of the tryline. Hannon missed, but you can't just wander onto the field like that during a kick and Hannon had another shot. He struck the ball beautifully but it drifted just to the right. 12-7 Royal Irish.
St. Ignatius then started to use the boot, with flyhalf Bobby Voth finding some space to kick to and the chase being very effective. That pressure led to a turnover and the ball shipped wide to outside center Jack Dulik, who raced over on the right-hand-side. Dulik, however, saw he had some room and curled around the touch down under the posts. That also was a key play, especially when the Ignatius bench couldn't find the kicking tee.
Voth waited and waited, and once he was informed by the referee he had only ten second left, calmly drop-kicked the ball over the bar for the conversion: 14-12 Ignatius.
Royal Irish had one more chance but were eventually shoved unceremoniously into touch, and Ignatius had some measure of revenge.
