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Contenders Emerging in Expanded Texas-Louisiana League

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Contenders Emerging in Expanded Texas-Louisiana League

Scrum time for Strake Jesuit vs HCYA.

New Orleans Jesuit, Strake Jesuit,and Dallas Jesuit all won in the Texas/Louisiana Cup this week.

For New Orleans defeated St. Thomas out of Houston 36-12 in a nice bounce-back after last week's non-conference loss to Florida club Okapi. After the Okapi loss Head Coach Adam Massey had said there were some positives to take away from the game.

This week, they showed some of those. James Roniger broke through for two long-range tries and Jack Holly was a force in the lineouts and stole five St. Thomas throws.

Strake Jesuit, meanwhile, produced a solid shutout of HCYA 44-0, led by some outstanding play by sophomores Paolo Masso at center and No, 8 Felipe Edbrooke. Both defense very well and each scored two tries. Center Charlie Mohr was a disruptor when HCYA had the ball and gain big chunks of meters with ball in hand, helping set up multiple tries. Wing Kolbe Stewart was one beneficiary, finishing off two tries.

"Our backline is starting to work as a unit and our forwards continue to improve," said Strake Jesuit Head Coach Jason Kimball. "We did convert our first maul try in what feels like years, so that was a solid goal we attained."

Kimball said he was not thrilled with his team's less-precise moments on defense, and that sloppiness leaked into their discipline as Strake was his with yellow cards on three separate occasions.

"Will be focusing on that in the upcoming weeks," Kimball said. Strake visits Louisiana this week to play Brother Martin in a non-TX/LA league game in the middle of the week.

Dallas Jesuit was paced by three tries from center Chris Matthews and a 6-for-8 showing from three separate goalkickers. Flyhalf and captain Alejandro Andujar added two tries and a conversion on the day.

So an early start in this cross-border competition, which has expended now to 12 school teams. (Not all are blessed with big numbers.)

Next week 10 teams are in action in this competition with Lake Travis out of Austin hosting Strake Jesuit out Houston. This could be the final in this competition later, although Dallas is another contender. The Rangers play Allen, which won via forfeit over the weekend. Celina is also 1-0, but their more imposing tests are backloaded on their schedule. For Jesuit New Orleans, their next big Texas/Louisiana test is February 22 against Lake Travis.

Texas/Louisiana                  
North W L T PF PA PA BT BL Pts
Celina 1 0 0 43 8 35 1 0 5
Allen 1 0 0 28 0 28 1 0 5
Dallas Jesuit 1 0 0 52 26 26 1 0 5
Great Hearts 0 1 0 26 52 -26 1 0 1
Martin HS 0 1 0 0 28 -28 0 0 0
Faith Family Acad. 0 1 0 8 43 -35 0 0 0
                   
South W L T PF PA PA BT BL Pts
Strake Jesuit 1 0 0 44 0 44 1 0 5
Jesuit New Orleans 1 0 0 36 12 24 1 0 5
Lake Travis 1 0 0 29 10 19 1 0 5
St. Pius X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
St. Thomas  0 2 0 22 65 -43 0 0 0
HCYA 0 1 0 0 44 -44 0 0 0