It’s going to be Gonzaga v Jesuit for the third year in a row in the Boys Single-School HS Championships after both won semifinals Friday at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, NC, but it will be a game where the teams took markedly different paths to get there.

Gonzaga ran out to an impressive lead against Herriman, and then almost lost it as the Utah team came storming back. Meanwhile, Jesuit ran out to an early lead over Penn and held that lead to win comfortably.

Photos Tamara Tidey. Jesuit in yellow. Click on image to enlarge.

For Gonzaga, it all started so well. They burned Herriman out wide with fullback Cam Bohlander racing in for an early try. Herriman answered with a series of surges with their forwards. Then center Rahshan Jones scored another nice backs try, and followed that up with an opportunist’s score. Herriman had a defensive five-meter scrum that was shoved back. Leki Fotu rescued the ball, but some rash and rushed passing on the goal line allowed Jones to just step in and nab the lose pass and touch down. 

So with Pat Sheehy kicking well Gonzaga led 19-5, and soon it was 24-5 when jones raced onto a nice pass and then offloaded out of the tackle to Tyree Randolph for another try.

Herriman were a bit shell-shocked, and a bit shoved back as Gonzaga had opted for size in the pack to combat Herriman’s height and power - Gonzaga started a prop at lock.

It didn’t get much better for Herriman, as Sheehy slotted a penalty. But slowly the Mustangs started to find some momentum. Fotu was huge in getting his team some go-forward, and they were dangerous when they moved the ball through the hands. That approach led to a try, and thoughts of a comeback. Another try (neither converted) made it 27-15.

“With the format of playing three games in three days, you have to manage your players,” said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. “Normally, we would have just closed out the game, but we started thinking about tomorrow and we made some changes. We also needed our guys to stop contesting at the rucks. But we kept doing that and started giving up way too many penalties.”

Nevertheless, Gonzaga held Herriman out for a crucial period of about ten minutes, and then No. 8 Deandre Easterling was put under the posts after a superb display of team phase rugby where Jack Iscaro and, again, Jones, had major parts to play.

Up 34-15, Gonzaga twisted the knife with a textbook lineout and maul that led to a try for lock Roger Mellado and a 39-15 lead. It seemed, then, that Gonzaga had it sewn up, but they didn’t. Herriman surged back with three brilliant tries. They worked the rucks very quickly and when they used their speed and moved the ball, they forced Gonzaga to commit penalties, and they scored tries.

In the end, Gonzaga held on 39-34, but it was a close-run thing.

“We felt at our best we could put pressure on them and get up in their faces,” said Baggetta. “When we got possession we created line breaks almost every time. We were fortunate to have Patrick Sheehy kicking for us - he did a wonderful job.”

Sheehy’s kicking was part of the difference as he slotted three conversions and a penalty for nine points, and Herriman converted only two out of six tries for four points.

Jones was stellar for Gonzaga Friday. He had something to do with almost every scoring movement. But now they have another challenge in Jesuit.

Jesuit scored very early against Penn, running in center Lou MacLaughlin as first receiver, and the center just bursting through the line.

“We went in there with the plan to go at their ten and their inside backs, and you know how it is with young kids, once the plan started to work they get the confidence going and they just build on it,” said Jesuit Head Coach John Shorey.

“We knew coming out of that Brownsburg game [where they won on penalty kicks after overtime], we know that wasn’t going to be enough to beat Penn.”

Hit by injuries, Jesuit started three sophomores who had never played for the varsity team before. Getting your first run-on in a national semifinal might be intimidating, but the three youngsters all acquitted themselves well. Luke Bagley bagged two tries. The first made it 15-3 when just picked and powered through on a nice Jesuit movement that demonstrated the value of quick ball. With Luke Thayer making his kicks it was 17-3 when Bagley scored his second, a move with seven points, and possibly twice as many in emotional points. Jesuit took a lineout just outside the Penn 22 and mauled it. Penn didn’t really contest the maul, but that only works if your one defender tackles the maul down. They didn’t, and the Marauders mauled it all the way to the line.

“Even when we had a tough game yesterday, the kids never wavered,” said Shorey. “We now we could attack them and make them work. Our confidence level was up. Penn was big and athletic and more tactical than us, but our guys are battle-tested. We’ve done those things like play three touring teams in a week - stuff to prepare us for this.”

Flyhalf Christian Dyer was on-point against Penn, and while the Indiana players mounted a comeback and never backed down, Jesuit just closed it down 38-15.

And one wonders if that will be the difference. Will Jesuit’s experience of tough games be enough? Gonzaga has played a lot of tough games, too, and they have some superb athletes, and boy do they have size. 

It’s Jesuit v Gonzaga Part III. That’s all you can ask for.

Notes: Gonzaga won 27-26 over Jesuit last year to win their first-ever national HS title. Jesuit has won nationals seven times, the earliest in 1999. Herriman made their first appearance in the top four, and while Penn won’t be in the final, this is their 8th appearance in the top four.