Charlotte Cardinals Take Gonzaga Classic Girls Tournament
Charlotte Cardinals Take Gonzaga Classic Girls Tournament
The Charlotte Cardinals won the inaugural girls bracket at the Gonzaga Classic, putting an impressive stamp on the competition by beating Morris in the final.
But they weren't the only team that showed well, as the girls teams showed that bringing them into the Gonzaga Classic was a very good idea.
Morris, which is 3-0 in the Elite Girls Rugby League, found some solid competition in this tournament. They were behind 12-5 in their semifinal with Clayton before a late try made it 12-10.
Faced with a tough angle on the conversion and knowing they had very little time to get another score, Caitlin Moroney put over a well-taken kick to tie it at 12-12.
Buoyed by that kick and some dogged work at scrumhalf by Anna Kugelman, Morris finished the game off with a try with no time left to win 17-12.
Charlotte, meanwhile, had to deal with an athletic Aspetuck side that had, earlier in the competition, put Vienna to the sword 36-7.
They won 19-5 but it wasn't easy.
In the final, Charlotte showed some impressive ball movement. They went wide quickly and kept players in support to get them close to the line. Then the forwards moved in before Alex Kirschner picked up and was over five minutes in.
The Cardinals just wouldn't let Morris out of their own 22. They kicked deep, put the pressure on defensively, and when Morris finally did kick, the Cardinals were there to counter.
One such counter, combining with some good work from Caroline Cook they were over again. Another try on a pick-and-go and they cruised from there.
Aspetuck showcased their speed to get past Clayton 24-21—Clayton was oh-so-close but ended the final day with two tough losses. In this game once again there was a comeback. Aspetuck fell behind 14-0 only to pick it up and score four tries to win it.
For the Gonzaga Classic this was a new foray into girls rugby and it was enormously successful. For the Cardinals, who have a key regional game coming up with Raleigh this weekend, it was a bit of a coming out party. Beating one of the strongest teams in the East in Morris, and doing it fairly convincingly, has people taking notice.
