The SLUH All-Catholic Tournament finished up with a strong performance from St. Thomas Aquinas.

Led by their second row pairing of Jake Ernsting and Carson Kraft, the Saints beat a very good SLUH team 14-3.

STA’s defense was very solid, with flanker Trever Mogren making some key plays in the breakdown. Yes Max and Mike Doerfler were strong at No. 8 and flyhalf, respectively, and the team overall played superb team defense.

SLUH had their moments. They used prop Kodi Cade to push the gain line and scrumhalf David Kuebler to push the pace. Babson commit Trey Dino was solid as well.

But STA did really well to defend their line. They gave up some penalties, but they weren’t going to give up points. Kraft put the game away with a rollicking charge through tacklers from 25 meters out, and that was it.

Overall St. Thomas Aquinas played the three strongest opponents in the tournament and came way with three wins: 7-0 over Notre Dame de la Salette, 27-14 over St. Xavier, and 14-3 over SLUH.

SLUH ended up 0-2 (they played their 2nds against Marquette) but their other loss was 12-11 to St. Xavier.

Meanwhile, St. Xavier beat St. James in a good performance led by the always tough-to-tackle Phil Bottomley at No. 8. Seb Neis was snappy at scrumhalf and Mason Moore has been getting better and better.

What this ended up showing was that there’s competition everywhere. La Salette had skill all over. St. James has athleticism and potential and put St. X under pressure. Their props Clive Porter and Spencer Scheutz were very good. Father Ryan is young and needs time.

Marquette thought they were young and needed time but they actually looked strong than they expected.