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Royal Irish Wins Indiana

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Royal Irish Wins Indiana

Gabe Coleman, making the tackle in blue and black, was the MVP of the final. Dan Bandoni photo.

Royal Irish capped off a torrid few weeks with a 19-15 defeat of Penn to win the Indiana state championship.

Since May 6 Royal Irish has played ten games, winning them all as the Indianapolis team won the Midwest championship (beating West Ottawa, Grandville, and Carroll), finished off league play, won the National HS Club Championships (beating West End, Doylestown, and Fishers), and beating Fishers and Penn to win Indiana.

Penn, for their part, were hardly idle as they won the Midwest single-school title, beating Pulaski, St. Edward, and St. Ignatius in the process. They finished 3rd at nationals, and, like Royal Irish, Monday's game was their 10th in 24 days.

Penn took an early 5-0 lead but Royal Irish stormed back after that to lead 19-10. The second half was a defensive battle, and while Penn was able to get within a try at 19-15, that was how it ended and Royal Irish held onto the ball for most of the final moments.

Gabe Coleman was outstanding and helped create two of the three Royal Irish tries, scoring one of them. Jake Christmann played another big game at scrumhalf and was in support of Coleman for another try. Prop Andy Guhl also scored, and Christmann's two conversions made it two championships won by his kicking in two weeks. Coleman got the MVP award.