05/22/2010

Charlotte Catholic Rugby Finishes Fourth at US Nationals!

Game 1 (Charlotte Catholic 17-Snow Canyon (UT) 12)

Catholic came in as the number 7 seed and their first game opponent was Snow Canyon High School from Saint George Utah (#2 seed).  Saint George is a public high school located in Southern Utah with about 1,200 students that is about a 4 hour drive from Salt Lake.  For those who have never visited, Southern Utah is beautiful.  The first game was played at a local middle school in suburban Salt Lake City with the snow capped mountains forming a beautiful background.  At game time it was sunny with broken clouds and about 70 degrees but there was a stiff wind which played havoc with the lineouts all game.  The game started with both teams a little tentative.  Snow Canyon was not as technically proficient in Rugby but had some good athletes.  The ball stayed pretty close to midfield for the first 20 minutes with the teams alternating possessions.  Near the end of the first half Snow Canyon was able to score and add a conversion to make it 7-0 Snow Canyon.  However Catholic fought back and just before the half Garrett Keenan made a great power run up the middle for a score.  After a Nick Funck conversion the half ended tied 7-7.  Early in the second half, Snow Canyon moved the ball nicely and was able to score a try to go up 12-7.  Things were not looking great for Catholic as the clock wound down but with only a few minutes left in the game, Nick Funck picked up a ball from a scrum and powered forward breaking tackles to score.  He added a conversion to put Catholic up 14-12.  The last few minutes of the game were a frenzy with Snow Canyon desperately trying to get on the board and Catholic bravely fighting off the attempts.  Snow Canyon was called for a late penalty and Catholic chose to kick for points.  Nick Funck was dead solid perfect on the penalty kick to make the score 17-12.  The Cougars held off a final push from Snow Canyon and the game ended 17-12 and puts Catholic in the Semi finals.  Overall it was an extremely exciting games between two pretty evenly matched teams. 

Game 2 (CCHS 12-Xavier (NY) 24)

In the second game Catholic faced off against Xavier High School, a private Jesuit high school from New York City (Manhattan).  Xavier was the number 3 overall seed this year and had finished 3rd in last years national championships.  The game was played in Rio Tinto Stadium in suburban Salt Lake City, a major league soccer stadium that is home to a professional team (Real Salt Lake).  The stadium holds over 20,000 fans and the atmosphere was pretty incredible. At gametime it was overcast, cooler and windy with some light shower near the end of the game. Xavier came out of their corner swinging and was able to move the ball well and score a try and conversion to make the score 7-0.  However Catholic shook off any jitters from playing on the big stage and was able to tie up the score with a big try by Nick Funck who also added the conversion to make it 7-7.  Shortly after Sam Donahue scored a huge try after a great push by the front line to put the Cougars up 12-7.  Xavier was able to counter quickly and scored a try and conversion to make it 14-12 in favor of Xavier.  The last 8 minutes of the half were exciting with some great back and forth but no more scoring.  Boith teams showed some great athleticism.  Rio Tinto has a regulation Rugby-size field and the game was wide-open and exciting with some great long runs and kicks.  In the second half  Xavier scored early and added a conversion to make the score 21-12.  CCHS refused to quit and kept the ball in the Xavier half of the field for most of the rest of the second half.  Catholic had a couple of close calls where they almost scored but couldn't quite get into the try zone.  Xavier added a penalty kick near the end of the game to make the final 24-12.  Although the final score wasn't in favor of Catholic, they played exceptionlly well and were well matched with Xavier.  Catholic will play again tomorrow for third place.  Catholic has guaranteed no worse than a 4th place finish in the tournament, a significant improvement from last years 8th place finish.

05/20/2010

Great trip! Everything went well. From Charlotte to Phoenix, from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. Kind of a long trip but here we are.

After arriving, we picked up our vans and headed up to our hotel. Checking was great since Elizabeth and Bernie arrived yesterday and did everything in advance.

By 4:00 (local time) we proceeded to the formal tournament registration. Every player had everything in order so in less than 10 minutes we were done.

Back into the hotel by 4:45…. Everybody changed and run to get back to our normal routine. Serious work was needed and the kids did well again.

Now everybody is back… swimming.

Dinner is at 6:30. Pictures will be posted tonight… remember to check twitter: @cchsrugby.      

We have decided to mention all the anecdotes and fun "issues" at the end of the trip… 

More to come. 

Pictures in the Photo section.