Ok, let’s do this again. 

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Soo…

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My questions for you:

• How can we improve our coverage? What would you LOVE to see from us?

• Would you like to become a Rugby Riot contributor? Meaning, would you like to write short articles about your local team and have them published in Rugby Riot?

Alrighty, that’s it. Let’s get to the games!

-Ipse, Chief Rioter

In This Issue

• 🧭West Coast

  • Cathedral Catholic Wins 5th Title In A Row 🏆

  • St. Francis Takes The Cali Crown 👑

• 🧭 East Coast

  • Charlotte Tigers 73 — 0 Raleigh Redhawks

  • Gonzaga vs Vienna & Fort Hunt

  • Aspetuck (CT) 27 — 32 Fairfield Prep (CT)

  • Xavier (NY) 29 — 10 St. Edward (OH)

• 🧭 Southern States

  • Okapi (FL) 29 — 21 Barbarians (TX)

  • St. Paul (LA) 34 — 5 East Jefferson (LA)

  • Woodlands (TX) 93 — 3 HEB (TX)

• 🧭 MidWest

  • St. Ignatius 52 — 5 New Trier

  • Herriman 43 — 24 Brighton

  • Lindenwood Tournament

🧭West Coast

The biggest matches on the West Coast were the SCIRF Final and the California State Final. We published two separate articles about these, so click the links below to read more 👇

🧭East Coast

Charlotte Tigers 73 — 0 Raleigh Redhawks

OK, the Charlotte Tigers might be scary this season. They dominated at Ruggerfest just 10 days ago and followed it up with a 73-0 demolition of the Redhawks.

This squad is stacked with talent, led by Jameson Beatty, the driving force behind South Meck’s state title last month. If they have the depth—and can stay healthy—then the sky is the limit.

While the Charlotte Cardinals have been the talk of the town since winning Nationals last year, it might be time to put the Tigers in that same conversation.

These guys can ball.

Gonzaga vs Vienna & Fort Hunt

Gonzaga is doing Gonzaga things.

As the season gets into full swing for the DC squad, they’re rounding into form nicely, having gone on a three game tear over the past two weeks. Last week saw them take down Vienna and Fort Hunt, both with dominant score lines (52-21 & 29-12 respectively).

Gonzaga creates and exploits space like clockwork. Their excellent forward pack are the tempo setters—with scrumhalf Axel Reis guiding them through their phases. And once you give them an inch, shifty playmakers like fullback Ethan Heim and winger Thomas Gabay will rip your heart out on the perimeter. Against Fort Hunt, tries were scored by Gabay and Ries, along with centers Luke Jerro and Bo Sulc. Lock Gavin Koush tacked on a try too, representing the forward pack in the scoring department.

Fort Hunt and Vienna are both quality teams, but they both ran straight into the buzzsaw that is Gonzaga rugby.

Gonzaga, however, will face a Goliath-sized task this upcoming weekend when they face the Charlotte Cardinals. We’ll have more on that matchup in a couple days. Stay tuned.

Aspetuck (CT) 27 — 32 Fairfield Prep (CT)

Connecticut has launched!
This was a frigid and blustery affair, and Fairfield Head Coach Kevin Kery noted that both teams were “physical and emotional to start the season.”

The kicking game struggled in the windy conditions, but the forward packs for both teams played very well and controlled the tempo. It came down to the final play, with zeroes on the clock—and Fairfield Prep’s Will Kelly scored the game winner to give Fairfield Prep a 1-0 start to their season.

Aspetuck Man of the Match: Alexander Drury 💪
Fairfield Prep Man of the Match: Will Kelly 💪

Next up: Aspetuck travels to PA this weekend to take on Berks (PA). Fairfield Prep faces off against Christian Brothers Academy (NJ) this Friday.

Xavier (NY) 29 — 10 St. Edward (OH)

St. Edward has been on the road a bunch lately. First they traveled down to Ruggerfest in NC, and then they trekked to NYC for this battle with Xavier.

Xavier led from start to finish in this one, though St. Ed’s did test them with well-placed kicks and strong running throughout the game.

Xavier’s in-house writer, Michael Livigni, authored a full writeup on the game here, but here are a couple coaches’ quotes (pulled from Livigni’s article) to give you a taste for how the game went:

Xavier hosts Staples (CT) this Saturday. St. Edward stays in Cleveland for their first round of the Cavoli Cup against their rivals, St. Ignatius (OH).

🧭 South

Okapi (FL) 29 — 21 Barbarians (TX)

Okapi hosted the Barbarians for a tight contest between these two solid Southern teams. The Barbarians are attempting to earn a place at Nationals this summer, but apparently they need to play more top 20 teams (Goff rankings) to make the cut. That’s why this game came about.

It was physical and technical—as both teams have skilled defenders and attacking threats. Barbarians Head Coach Erick Thompson lamented a few missed opportunities, saying “I thought we had it a couple times. We just didn’t quite finish.” But overall it was a highly competitive game, with Okapi securing the victory.

Okapi has done very well this season against out-of-state opponents. They are currently 3-0 in that department, which is impressive.

In true rugby fashion, Okapi put on a delicious barbecue after the game, and both teams were able to mingle and chat about the game. RugbyInFL posted a nice little video, interviewing the Barbarians coach and captain. You can watch that here 📺.

St. Paul (LA) 34 — 5 East Jefferson (LA)

St. Paul has quietly put together a string of good games down in Louisiana. They beat Hammond 84-3 two weeks ago, and they just beat East Jefferson 34-5 this past weekend. Head Coach Eric Orphys noted that East Jefferson had some big strong dudes that were difficult to bring down. But his boys were able to pull off the win with good kick execution from their flyhalf Lane Hamaker and solid work by their backline with the ball in-hand.

Despite some defensive sloppiness at times, the St. Paul boys were able to contain East Jefferson’s playmakers, with Culver Stone (#12) doing the yeoman’s work on the defensive side.

St. Paul’s Men of the Match: 💪 Lane Hamaker (Flyhalf) & 💪 Culver Stone (Inside-Center)

Woodlands (TX) 93 — 3 HEB (TX)

Woodlands… my dudes… y’all have no chill.

HEB was 2-1 coming into this game and had blown out a couple opponents, but they ran smack-dab into an oncoming train—as Woodlands nearly dropped 100 points on them.

To their credit, the HEB crew did not stop working in this match, and they posted these beautiful words on their instagram page after the match:

Love that!

No disrespect to HEB, but Woodlands needs tougher opponents. They’re like a moody teenager who keeps roughing up his little brother—when what they really need is to step into a boxing ring and get their butt kicked by someone their own size.

Luckily, we’ll see Woodlands at the Friendship Cup this month in Tennessee and the Gonzaga Classic in April, that’s where they’ll meet some stiff competition and we can get a better idea of their class.

🧭 MidWest

St. Ignatius 52 — 5 New Trier

St. Ignatius dominated this one from start to finish, as the score indicates.

New Trier has some enormous fellas, and they made Ignatius work for it in the early minutes of this game. But once St. Ignatius found their groove, they started scoring and never looked back.

St. Ignatius played pretty much the entire first half in New Trier’s territory. Booming kicks kept the Trier boys pinned deep. Relentless defense by Ignatius often forced turnovers. And Mark French and the gang generated their attacking phases until somebody broke free. It was fast-paced, efficient rugby from the Ignatius boys.

New Trier did have a good march down the field and punched in a try with their forwards, but on the next play, Tommy Passerallo snatched the restart kick and took it to the house—the game was out of New Trier’s reach at that point.

New Trier has strong athletes and the potential to be a very good rugby team. But Ignatius showed why they’re one of the best in the business, ultimately generating 52 points to New Trier’s 5. Game over.

Here’s that play by Tommy Passerallo👇

Herriman 43 — 24 Brighton

The final score isn’t a great reflection of how this game actually went down. Herriman was up 43-0 at halftime in this match and decided to give their reserves a bunch of playing time. Coach Jeff Wilson commented that it was a “great day all around” as Herriman fielded six teams across multiple age groups and went 5-1 on the day—all while getting over 140 players at least 20 minutes of playing time. 💪 

Standout Herriman players included: Macrae Parker, Tiki Thompson, Ryder Syddall, Kemper Castro, Sione Nau, and Kaden Sturgis.

Lindenwood Tournament

Multiple teams from the Kansas and Missouri leagues competed at Lindenwood University’s tournament over the weekend, with standout performances from St. Thomas Aquinas (KS), Kansas City Junior Blues (MO), and St. Martins (KS). All three teams went undefeated and dropped some serious points on their opponents.

The KC Junior Blues had a dominant 39-10 win over SLUH, one of their big rivals.
St. Thomas Aquinas beat all three of their opponents by more than 3 tries.
St. Martins only played two games, but they crushed SLUH 84-0 and then beat their second opponent handily as well.

St. Martins Head Coach John Prezzia was very happy with how his boys performed, saying:

On another note, the KC Jr. Blues Instagram ALSO has no chill. Here’s a screenshot from the first day of the Lindenwood tourney:

Tip: Check out the updated rankings so you can keep up with scores around the country. Let us know if there are any missing scores so we can keep everything up to date.