Charlotte Catholic rising.

Has Charlotte Catholic arrived?

That’s the question circulating around the league in NC.

We did a write up on their comeback season aspirations right here, and one of the questions was: How is Charlotte Catholic going to perform against the big dogs in NC? Early in the December, they showed great improvement from last season by defeating opponents in the lesser echelon of NC rugby, but they hadn’t played any of the perennial contenders yet.

Well, that changed this week with a convincing victory over Marvin Ridge, last year’s state runner up.

The final score: Charlotte Catholic 20 - 10 Marvin Ridge.

It was a tight game from start to finish, with the first half score being 10-3 in Catholic’s favor, largely due to “a huge defensive effort” as Coach Zehmke described it, and tries by lock, Lukas Lipinski.

Holding a strong team like Marvin Ridge to just 10 points is an impressive defensive performance. In fact, Catholic allowed only 3 points until the final play of the game.

Coach Zehmke praised his squad, saying:

“MVP Thomas McKillop (lock), as well as Will Dominguez (hooker), led from the engine room, while centers Luke Zehmke and Billy Bambrick patrolled the midfield. Backs MVP, Andrew Kuhn (scrum half) kept the pace up between forwards and backs, marshaling his troops with effortless precision.”

The Catholic squad added tries by freshman, Miles Caple, before Marvin Ridge’s Evan Culicerto found the try zone to end the game with a score.

What’s next?

These two teams have very different schedules coming up.

 Marvin Ridge has been through the gauntlet over the past few games, facing one of the top 3 teams in NC each week. Next they play Myers Park and then get a bye week after that. I’ve been told they are dealing with some injuries, so maybe the next couple weeks will help them get healthy and prepare for a strong push in the final chapter of the season.

For Charlotte Catholic, they are entering their own gauntlet. Next week’s opponent? South Meck, currently either #1 or #2 team in the state this season. The week after that? Hough, last year’s state champs (who recently defeated South Meck). If Charlotte Catholic can maintain the momentum they’ve been building and beat either of those powerhouses, then keep a close eye on these boys when the state playoffs begin.