Ignatius Clinches Cavoli Cup on Senior Night
Ignatius Clinches Cavoli Cup on Senior Night
Newly #1-ranked school team St. Ignatius capped off Senior Night with a 64-24 victory over rivals St. Edward in a midweek meeting of the two Cleveland, Ohio teams.
The game was the finale match of the Cavoli Cup, the challenge trophy inaugurated this season that tracks results including Varsity, JV, and Freshmen and is named after a beloved teacher who taught at both schools.
A Concept that Deserves to be Spread Everywhere
The Varsity match showcased much of what is right and what is wrong with both of these ranked teams. St. Edward has players who can break tackles and punish you, but they were eventually exposed out wide. St. Ignatius has a good combination of forwards who can maul and pick-and-go when needed, and outside backs who can burn you, but they are prone to avoidable penalties and unforced errors.
St. Edward had the majority of ball in the early going and took a penalty goal in the first chunk of the first half, but they weren't able to find the tryline. St. Ignatius, once they saw the ball, scored on a maul and then from close-in with their forwards. But they were also starved of possession and good field position for much of the first half.
However, as halftime started to loom center Joe Deinhart power-stepped his way through and over. St. Edward stormed back and were threatening when prop Connor Bender intercepted a pass and raced almost the length of the field to score. Impressive for a prop, except Bender isn't your classic prop and normally plays flanker or lock. That was a huge emotional boost for Ignatius and they finally scored a more constructed backline play, putting wing Tommy Passerallo over on the right side.
A series of penalties opened up a chance for St. Edward and the Eagles raced through the middle to score and make it 33-10.The second half began with a turnover created by lock Jacob Papesh and a dummy and snipe from captain and scrumhalf Mark French. Papesh scored on a maul not long after.
But St. Edward did not wilt and continued to look for ways to thwart the Ignatius attack. They did this even after a player suffered a worrying injury in a collision when he and an Ignatius player were both trying to cover a kick. The player did walk off the field (with a little help) but it was a rough moment for St. Ed's.
After the Ignatius forwards worked it over for one more, St. Edward cut through some tackles to score one try and then exploited a dropped kick to score another and make it a little closer at 54-24. With time winding down the Wildcats Colin Spellacy found Passerallo for his second, and the backs sent it wide to the wing a second time and he wasted no time in speeding down the sideline to score another.
That made it 64-24. But the Cavoli Cup isn't just about the Varsity teams. In the end, St. Ignatius swept the six games (three played at St. Edward last month and three hosted by St. Ignatius this evening). The Freshman game saw a 14-14 game turned around into a 43-21 Ignatius win thanks to a hard-nosed performance from lock and player of the game Jake Bennett, and huge effort from flyhalf Bob Lepresti. The Wildcats' lineout dominated throughout, which helped when they gave up penalties.
The St. Ignatius JV team also won, sparked as they were by Nate Muniz, normally a back but who stepped up to play flanker and was very impressive. In addition, Max Reed bounced back from a bash in the nose to put in a massive shift in the backs.
But back to the Varsity team. St. Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik might be coaching the #1-ranked school team in the country, but he's looking for something more.
"First of all I hope [the injured St. Ed's player] is OK. He's a good kid I know him from Rookie Rugby; that was a scary moment," said Arbeznik. "For our team, we show flashes of being a good team and we have some really good athletes who can make the gainline quickly and can score quickly but we're not a very good team right now. The penalty count was really high against us. We brought in fresh legs and we gave up 14 really quickly and that cannot happen. We game up territory constantly just on penalties."
The scoreboard, said Arbeznik, doesn't show how dangerous St. Edward was or reflect the mistakes St. Ignatius made, partly because an athletic play covered up the mistakes.
"We're fortunate that we have a couple of guys that you look and say 'that's a really good athlete' but that only gets you so far until you're playing against another really good athlete."
The result makes St. Ignatius 8-0 and they now get nine days to prepare to play rivals Gonzaga in West Virginia. For St. Edward, they are next playing at the Midwest Championships May 3-4 in Elkhart, Ind.
