La Salette Goes 3-0 to Win Midwest Championships
La Salette Goes 3-0 to Win Midwest Championships
Notre Dame de la Salette won the Boys Midwest Championships over the weekend, defeating Penn HS, St. Edward, and, in the final, Bishop Dwenger to take the trophy.
Playing rival Penn for the second time this season, La Salette looked for a repeat of their 43-17 national qualifier victory earlier in the season. The game started out with some early knock-ons, but the Lions fixed the turnovers when Gerard Neinabor poached the ball in the ruck and set up fullback Connor Hanlon for a try three minutes in.
Marcel Lefevre scored off a chip from Gabe Stafki, Tobias McQuillin scored his 16th try of the season, and Hanlon hit a drop goal to put the score at 22-0 at halftime. The second half was much of the same for the Lions, as Neinabor, Hanlon, Henry Dittman, and Daniel Sullivan all scored. La Salette continually pressured Penn in their half and all of that made it difficult for the Kingsmen. Final score 50-0.
This set up a clash between two teams headed to the Boys HS National Championships. St. Edward had also beaten Penn HS, but the score of 20-5. These two teams had met in Illinois earlier in the season with a 45-5 win for the Lions. This game was much closer.
Two minutes in, La Salette got a penalty in a kickable position and Hanlon put the kick over the bar. St. Edwards responded and pressured La Salette. However, the Lions defense held. Both defenses seemed to hold sway and after 20 minutes it remained 3-0 with La Salette frustrated at being unable to finish off chances. Finally, La Salette's Marco Cruz fielded a line-drive clearance kick and returned it for a try under the posts. That try was converted and the teams entered halftime with the score 10-0.
St. Edward was quick and aggressive, but points weren't coming for the Eagles. Two minutes into the second half Hanlon caught a dropout and sliced his way through the defense for another five points. Two tries for La Salette, both on kick counters. St. Edward pressured off a scrum and put a try in to make it 17-7. After receiving the restart the Eagles pressed forward, forcing La Salette to commit a series of penalties. St. Edward capitalized and scored to make it 17-12 and we had a ballgame.
Hanlon sealed it for the Lions with a penalty goal to make it 20-12 and a two-score game. La Salette's defense held on from there for the 20-12 victory.
Meanwhile, Bishop Dwenger won their pool with an impressive 51-7 victory over Brighton and then 17-7 over St. Ignatius of Cleveland. A key note here: St. Ignatius is GRR's #1-ranked team but the side sent to the Midwest tournament was short about two-dozen players due to school events. This was an opportunity, said their coach, for younger players to play for a championship. This is not to diminish Dwenger's performance, they played well, but to explain what might or might not happen in upcoming rankings updates.
So on to the final. Sunday brought heavy rain to Indiana, but it didn't diminish the quality for the championship game.
The rain was coming down in sheets, and it immediately became clear that the team that could minimize their mistakes would emerge victorious. Two minutes into the game, La Salette was already knocking on the door. Bishop Dwenger displayed some excellent goal-line defense, keeping the Lions out for a long series. But eventually the dam broke. Seamus Hanlon pounded in for the opening try and Connor Hanlon converted for a 7-0 lead.
The next 15 minutes saw both teams decide they couldn't hold onto the ball and so kicked to each other to see who would struggle with ball-handling. It worked for both teams. Neither team could keep continuity, and finally after a series of La Salette penalties Dwenger ran a move off an attacking scrum and were over. That made it 7-5, and that's how it would be at halftime.
La Salette had opportunities, but mistakes hurt them. Early in the second half La Salette pressured the Dwenger goalline again, and once more the Bishop Dwenger goalline defense was outstanding.
Stafki and Henry Dittman stabbed through grubbers for chasers to try to grab and score ... but Dwenger survived that. Eventually Marcel Lefevre scored on the outside. Five minutes later, center Lewis Dittman capped off his return to the La Salette lineup with a try, putting the Lions up 19-5. Looking for the nail in the coffin, Stafki put a well-placed kick in the Saint's territory, and Andrew Sick scored to bring the score to 26-5.
Another smart kick, this time from Connor Hanlon, set up a scrum from which Henry Betz scored. Conversion good and it was 33-5.
It was an impressive performance by La Salette in part because they solved the problem of the weather and executed on their tactical shift.
St. Ignatius took 3rd with a 33-0 defeat of St. Edward. Penn took 5th with a 67-0 win over Brighton.
In the Open Division, West Ottawa went 3-0 with wins over St. Edward's 2nds, Olentangy, and Marian.
—Written by Joseph Mackin, with edits and some additional GRR comments
