The Kansas City Jr. Blues and St. Louis University High met in St. Louis Sunday for the Missouri state HS final, and when it was over the Blues were champions … but barely.

The Missouri playoffs included eight teams in a format where the quarterfinals and semifinals were held in shortened format on Saturday. SLU had little trouble in beating Park Hill and Eureka, and in fact didn’t allow a try in those games.

KC defeated the Marquette Mustangs and Priory, with the Mustangs giving them all sorts of trouble in a tight game.

But in the end it was the two favored programs in the final. 

“The plan through the weekend was to just keep possession,” said St. Louis University High Coach Joe Muller. “We did that for the most part in the first two games, although against Eureka we gave up way too many penalties. But against the Blues we didn’t do that in the first half. We kicked a lot of possession away.”

“SLU is a damned good team,” said Jr. Blues Head Coach Eddie Cummings. “I was very impressed with them. Their whole goal in the season was to try to beat us. But we were able to play our game in the first half.”

Paced by tries from flanker Will Allegri and center/flyhalf Sam Chapman, the Blues took a 14-7 lead into halftime. The St. Louis try came from flyhalf Drew Mudd, who chipped over the defense, fly-hacked past another defender, gathered the ball, and raced in from long-range. Mudd was outstanding for SLUH, and that was an excellent example of what he can do. At halftime, Muller exhorted his SLU team to keep possession, and the pack did exactly that, carefully working the phases. But it was very slow going. They had a try called back for a knock-on, and several times were right on the Jr. Blues line, only to be denied.

“We made some changes at halftime and we just stopped winning ball,” said Cummings. “We couldn’t win our set piece, and they just kept the pressure on us.”

The Blues played excellent defense for most of the half, with No. 8 Daniel Simon and lock Jake Kerns leading a stalwart forward effort. For SLUH, missed opportunities would plague them, as they scored just the one try, unconverted, and KC Jr. Blues held on 14-12.

“This has been a great season, a lot of run,” said SLUH’s Muller. “We beat some good teams and built to ward some really good rugby. It’s a tough loss, and we needed to convert those opportunities, but that’s what it’s like in the playoffs.”

Meanwhile, for the Blues, there’s more rugby to be played.

“We’ve got Nationals coming up and we’re most happy that we came out of this healthy,” said Cummings. “The final was great. They have a great fan base and it was a well-played game. But we need to put that behind us and look ahead to Thursday at 5:30.”

That’s when the Blues face West Shore United in the opening round of the Boys HS National Championships.