In a rematch from last year's Massachusetts state final, BC High used smothering defense and a few quick strikes to beat St. John’s Prep 18-5 Wednesday night.

During the first five minutes, St. John’s Prep dominated possession, moving the ball from sideline to sideline, probing for an option and using hard runners to carry the ball up channels. Despite some nice carries and a stolen scrum, Prep was penalized for hitting the scrumhalf at a ruck six minutes in, and flyhalf Nick Sommer slotted the penalty to put BC High up 3-0.  

The next ten minutes saw both sides working to get their offense going, only to be met by stalwart defense.  St. John’s Prep were able to steal BC High ball at the breakdown and frustrate the BC High set piece. But a knock-on inside their own 22 proved costly to Prep, as the BC High scrumhalf took the ball from the base of the ruck down the narrow, drawing a defender and giving the ball to Ryan Connolly on the wing. Connolly stepped by one defender and ran through three more on his way to a try. Sommer converted, giving BC High a 10-0 lead.  

Ten minutes later, Sommer slotted another penalty in front of the posts to put BC High up 13-0 going into halftime.  

St. John’s Prep again dominated possession to start the second half, this time culminating in a great individual effort by wing Tristan Wallace, who split two defenders in the BC High line and then ran through two more would-be tacklers on his way to a 50-meter try.  The conversion attempt failed, and the score remained 13-5 BC High.  

After the ensuing restart, St. John’s Prep dominated possession in the middle of the field for ten minutes, but were largely kept in check by the BC High defensive line. After a clearance kick failed to reach touch, a Prep player was sent off for a tip tackle. Finding touch, BC worked the ball through the hands and once again found Ryan Connolly, who ran past the defense for his second try of the day.  

The final ten minutes saw both teams work to break the defensive line, but neither was able to punch through another score before the final whistle. 

Final Score: BC High 18 St. John's Prep 5.

“I thought we defended very well today against an athletic side. We’ve spent a ton of time focusing on our defensive shape and it paid off today,” said BC High Coach Paul Carty.  “In a lot of ways this looked like a match between two teams playing their first match of the year.  We have a lot of work to do before our next match, but the foundation is in place.”

This was the opening weekend in the new state-sanctioned high school season in Massachusetts. With the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association officially recognizing the sport, an MIAA-sanctioned single-school season and a non-MIAA club season is now underway.

BC High will take on Xaverian next week while St. John’s Prep will face Needham High School. Also this week (all games were played on Wednesday), Belmont High beat Xaverian 13-10, and Lincoln Sudbury beat Brookline 27-5.