It’s taken a little time for it all to sink in for St. Ignatius, as it was third-time’s-the-charm for the Ohio team in their quest to beat St. Edward and a win a state championship.

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Ignatius lost to Edward in the Midwest tournament final, and a few days later the something happened in a league game. But as the two squads worked their way back to the championship game, it was Ignatius that came away 12-5 winners before a crowd of about 3,000.

“We suffered from a little bit of inconsistency early in the season,” said Brian White, part of the St. Ignatius coaching staff. “We lost a tough game to St. Ignatius at home, and we lost to Penn, as well. We were taking too many penalties.”

The coaches at St. Ignatius are familiar with the St. Edward style and knew their offense, but that didn’t mean they knew quite how to stop it.

It was all about the breakdown, said White. St. Edward did a superb job controlling the ball and going phase after phase. So in the final, the coaches resolved to focus on poaching the ball in the breakdown.

“We did a really good job poaching the ball in the breakdown in the final - we took the ball si times, and that was huge for us.”

Michael Mathews led the defensive effort, and was tasked with looking after hard charging St. Edward center  Ryan Bradfield, which he did well.

Lock Andrew Kerr was like another flanker on the field, making tackles in the interior backline, while scrumhalf Kevin Stefancin was a scrappy leader, and blocked a St. Edward clearance kick to set up the all-crucial second Ignatius try, scored by Andrew Boldy. 

That block was a bit of planning, too. Ignatius knew the end zones were small, and that Edward could be slow in getting their kicks off. In the end, it might have taken two losses to learn all of those lessons, but they resulted in the victory at the right time.

The future looks strong for Ignatius. White said the program doesn’t really rebuild these days - it just reloads.

“We lose eight or nine seniors, but I think we’ll be fine. We’re getting kids with rugby experience. Last year we lost 11 starters, and here we are winning a state championship.”