Brother Martin earned the right to defend its Louisiana state title with a tough victory over St Paul Tuesday night in New Orleans.

Brother Martin kicked off the scoring off of a lineout, scrumhalf Owen Gibson fed a crash ball to No. 8 Sam Graffeo, who made slip pass to Andre Cook to score under the posts.  Because of a mishap on the approach Br Martin's kicker allowed St Paul to charge down the conversion attempt, leaving the score at 5-0.

St Paul came storming back and when they got close to the Brother Martin line began a series of pick and goes which would work for them all night.  The St Paul forwards powered over for the try and the conversion was good.  St Paul 7-5.

St Paul once again worked the ball close to the Brother Martin line where they began a series of pick-and-go's and once again could not be stopped.  After sucking in the Brother Martin defense, over they went for their second try and a 12-5 lead after 30 minutes.

Shortly before halftime, however, Brother Martin flyhalf, and man of the match, Tyler Anclade, drove through a few St Paul defenders for a try to make it 12-10. After that Brother Martin started kicking the ball deep into St Paul territory. From there they got the ball back, ran it through the forwards, and then Anclade was over for another try and a 17-12 Crusader lead.

Brother Martin then missed an opportunity to increase their lead as Anclade missed a penalty kick from right in front of the posts. But not long after they regained possession and sent it wide for senior loose forward Andrew Lindstrom, who scored in the corner. Anclade curled the conversion in from the sideline and the score was 24-12.

St. Paul was not done and once again used its muscle to score. Conversion no good, Br Martin 24 -17. 

It was a frantic last ten minutes as Cook was sidelined with a yellow card for repeated infringements. Shorthanded, Brother Martin still managed to ice it with a try. St. Paul scored a little after and then won the ball on the restart. But the Brother Martin defense successfully poached the ball and frantically kicked the ball out of play to end the game, 29-22 for Brother Martin.

Br Martin will face the winner of Jesuit new Orleans vs Bayou Hurricanes. The State Final will be held as curtain-raiser to the NOLA Gold Major League Rugby game on Saturday April 23 at the Gold Mine.  The State Championship kickoff will be at 3:30pm.