The Celtic Elite Boys teams, which features mostly players from St. Edward and St. Ignatius in Ohio, plus some more regional talent, cruised through the Midwest RCT to win the Boys Varsity bracket.

Click on images to enlarge. All photos by Allison Bradfield. Celtic Elite in green.

The Celtic defeated Nebraska 39-5 and Illinois South 72-5 in Saturday’s action, and then defeated Missouri 37-14 and Illinois North 33-15 to win the event.

“On Saturday in Rockford we were just trying to work the kinks out with a new backline,” said Coach Tom Cleary. “We changed some people around to strengthen up our defense across the backline. We saw that as an area of weakness so we addressed it.”

The Celtic forwards had done well, helping the team to a 3-1 record at the Mid-Atlantic Challenge Cup, where their only loss was 22-19 to eventual the champions, Virginia.

“We felt comfortable going into Rockford,” said Cleary. We are not a very big team but we do have good speed, ball-handling, and kicking, so we just wanted to open it up and move the ball around and attack. As for defense we are a good rucking and poaching team and we do it quickly. So when you combine it all we were set up to just play a very up-tempo game and spread the field with our forwards plugged in along the backline to take it up strong, or just to be in support for a quick ruck and get the ball out and moving again.”

Andrew Baldado and Ryan Bradfield did well to launch attacking kids that the speedy Celtic chasers would follow. 

“With the defense looking for kicks. it allowed our backs to exploit gaps and hit them hard for some good slashing runs,” said Cleary. “The forwards were also working well distributing the ball.”

Pat Berry and Zach Heisterkamp led the way up front, while Owen Hundt and Xavier Macfarland helped set the platform with good work in the lineouts - both getting their team’s throw-ins and disrupting opposition throws.

On Sunday, Missouri and Illinois North were stronger opposition, and certainly more physical. Cleary said his team stuck well to the game plan.

 

Midwest Challenge Cup Boys Scores:

Varsity

Missouri 7 Illinois North 15

Michigan East 12 Illinois North 22

Michigan East 7 Missouri 24

Nebraska 5 Celtic Elite 39

Illinois South 14 Nebraska 20

Illinois South 5 Celtic Elite 72

 

Semis

Celtic Elite 37 Missouri 14

Illinois North 22 Nebraska 10

 

5th/6th Michigan East 10 Illinois South 7

3rd/4th Nebraska 5 Missouri 3

Final Celtic Elite 33 Illinois North 15

 

Boys JV

Illinois North 34 Illinois South 5

Missouri 34 Illinois South 7

Illinois North 21 Missouri 12

Illinois North 25 Missouri 12

Missouri 41 Illinois South 14

Illinois North 30 Illinois South 0

 

Illinois North wins with a 4-0 record

 

 

Boys Middle School

Illinois North 33 Illinois East 12

Illinois South 29 Illinois West 12

Illinois South 39 Illinois North 12

Illinois East 17 Illinois South 10

Illinois West 32 Illinois North 20

Illinois East 20 Illinois West 5

 

Illinois East and Illinois South both 2-1. Illinois East wins head-to-head over Illinois South.