Boys HS Nationals Single-School Bracket: A Look Back
With a little time gone we take a look back at the Boys Single-School Championships.
Champion: St. Ignatius
Most Points Scores: Jesuit Sacramento, 82, Herrman 79
Fewest Points Allowed: St. Ignatius 46, Jesuit Sacramento 47
Games Decided by a Try or Less: 4 (plus one more going to overtime)
St. Ignatius’s run to their 2nd Single-School National Championship in four years was an interesting one.
Wisconsin Finals Set for This Weekend
Wisconsin's high school finals are here with two matches on the slate Staurday at the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex in Cottage Grove.
Marquette will play the Pulaski Roos in the final while Green Bay plays Waukesha Gold in the 3rd-4th game.
State Championship: Marquette vs. Pulaski 1PM Kickoff
The final chapter of the 2025 season brings together two of Wisconsin's most decorated high school rugby programs. The Marquette Hilltoppers, state champions in 1996 and 2024, look to go back-to-back for the first time in school history. Facing them is a battle-tested dynasty—the Pulaski Roos, who boast six state titles (2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019), 20 semifinal appearances in the last 26 seasons, and now enter their 10th championship game in the past 17 years.
HS Boys School Top 50 Week 19
Well we have admit we're a little disappointed.
Not in who is #1 or #27 or whatever, but because we didn't end up making a lot of changes. Most (but not all) of our results from the past week-plus were from the Boys HS Rugby National Championships, and we did figure we'd see a few rankings upsets, but we didn't see a lot.
Of the 12 games in the Single-School bracket, the higher-ranked team won 10 times. The two upsets were a one-point game between #5 and #2, and then #3 over #2 which was 19-14 until very late. So we don't feel too bad about those.
The big upset in the rankings was St. Edward over St. Thomas Aquinas, and we're quite willing to acknowledge that we had STA up too high. Strake Jesuit lost three games in the HSNC, but somebody has to and they are brand-new to the event. They do drop down, but not especially far.
Close Games Highlight HS Club Nationals
Over the past five years, 10 different teams have made the top four in the Boys HS National Championship HS Club bracket.
And here's another fun fact: over the last eight HS Nationals tournaments, the HS Club bracket have had eight different champions.
This is about how competitive this bracket it. Every year there's a pile of close games. Every year there's a surprise.
HS Club Scores
Round 1 (Quarterfinals)
Charlotte Cardinals 53 San Mateo Wolverines 19
Belmont Shore 41 LCA 34
Cavemen 32 Charlotte Tigers 19
San Diego Mustangs 53 Woodlands 18
Round 2 (5th-Place Semifinals)
Charlotte Tigers 17 Woodlands 12
LCA 31 San Mateo Wolverines 12
Looking Back at Boys HS Nationals Tier II
Time for a Boys HS Nationals Rundown!
We have a bunch of video interviews embedded here as we run down Tier II.
OK, here we go:
Champion: SOC Raptors
Most Points Scores: Fort Hunt, 102
Fewest Points Allowed: SOC Raptors, 31
Games Decided by a Try or Less: 3
Once again it's important to note that this bracket remains enormously challenging, and winning a game here is very difficult. The bracket included three state champions and three state finalists.
Fort Hunt lost two of those close games, fielding a fairly young team the Warriors learned a lot about key decision-making moments in close games. Runners-up New Trier played excellent defense and only gave up two tries, total, in their first two games.
National Champs: Mustangs, Ignatius, and SOC Celebrate
The Boys HS Rugby National Championships is done and we've got a quick rundown.
SOC Raptors played fast and faster and pulled away from a tough New Trier side to win Tier II 31-14.
Jesse Torres was brilliant for the Raptors. How counter-attacking on kicks was a huge asset for SOC throughout the three days of action and he added an additional factor with his defense and his goalkicking.
For the Raptors, this was the culmination of some unfinished business. They have been coming to HS Nationals year after year but had not been able to come away with hardware. Last year's team felt they had the right combination to win Tier II, but it was San Mateo that took away the spoils. This time, SOC stuck with their approach, always stretching defenses and not getting drawn into what other teams were doing.
Another Overtime and Several Close Ones in HS Nationals Day 2
Here is a quick rundown of Day Two at the Boys HS Rugby National Championships, as we got yet another overtime game and some impressive bouncebacks, as well.
Tier II
St. Edward put on a nice show after many of the team had to race back home to Lakewood, Ohio last night for graduation.
They then drove back to Elkhart, slept a few hours, and opened the day with an impressive 39-3 win over St. Thomas Aquinas. While Aquinas is young and hit a bit by injury, Ed's put in a very good performance that set them up for 5th place.
They will play Eastside, which edged Fort Hunt 27-22 in the other 5th-place semi. Fort Hunt will rue some decisions close to the tryline, but Eastside battled well and showed some tenacity in edging the Virginia champs.
Video Interviews from Day One HS Nationals
We talk with some of the teams after the games from Boys HS National Championships Day One.
Wild Day One at HS Championships
It was a day of thrillers in the opening round of the Boys HS National Championships Thursday.
One game went to overtime. One game was won on the final play. Several others games were on a knife edge until late.
Here's a quick rundown:
Tier II
St. Edward came in as the #8 seed and promptly marched right down to score the opening try against top seed SOC Raptors. The Raptors' physicality in contact and speed of play saw them equalize and they scored again to take the lead.
But St. Edward defended bravely and didn't go away. Raptors did enough thanks to a couple of impressive breakaway tries, but it was much more difficult than they expected. Raptors 28 St. Edward 12.
How to Watch Boys HS National Championships
The Boys HS Rugby National Championships will be live-streamed on The Rugby Network.
Here are the links (all times Eastern):
Day 1 Red Field
SOC Raptors vs St. Edward Noon
New Trier vs Eastside 1:40PM
Cavemen vs Charlotte Tigers 3:20PM
ND de la Salette vs Jesuit Sac. 5PM
Day 1 White Field
St. Thomas Aquinas vs Raptor Rugby 12:20PM
Charlotte Cardinals vs San Mateo 2PM
San Diego Mustangs vs The Woodlands 3:40PM
Gonzaga vs Herriman 5:20PM
Boys HS Nationals About to Kick Off
It's a bit wet in Elkhart, Ind. this week.
Rain and even some thunderstorms have come in this week, but the weather will ease up for the action, which kicks off tomorrow, Thursday.
We have some information for you to take a look at and listen to.
Here is the event e-program.
Wisconsin Final Standings Show Improvement, Growth
The 2025 season proved Wisconsin high school rugby is thriving—delivering rising contenders, resilient rebuilds, and top-tier clashes across Badgerland and Northeast Wisconsin.
Here's a look at the regular season standings as the playoffs loom this weekend:
By Max Zukowski
Badgerland Conference – Final Standings Overview
Marquette University High School (6–0, +191 PD, 40 tries) – 29 PTS
Waukesha Gold (5–1, +60 PD) – 25 PTS
Muskego Warriors (5–1, +90 PD) – 24 PTS
Elkhorn Demon Elks (4–2, +94 PD) – 21 PTS
North Shore Legion (3–3, +20 PD) – 17 PTS
Eastside Exiles (3–3, +4 PD) – 17 PTS
Oregon (2–4, +11 PD) – 11 PTS
MARC Palm Beach Buffalos (2–4) – 11 PTS
Verona (0–6) – 3 PTS
Pre-Nationals? Not So Fast
Yes this is the weekend before HS Nationals but really only a few teams are taking a breather this week.
We've got some major games even for some teams building toward the national tournament, which kicks off this coming Thursday.
We also have the.state finals in Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Oregon, semifinals and quarterfinals (depending on the level) in Ohio and Indiana.
Teams going to Nationals that have big games this weekend include Cavemen, St. Ignatius, Notre Dame de la Salette, Xavier HS, and Eastside Lions all play.
Key Win for BC High in MIAA
In a meeting of two of the leading HS teams in the Massachusetts IAA league, Boston College High defeated Belmont HS 54-19 Wednesday night.
This was a very good showing for BC High, given that the Eagles had only beaten Xaverian Brothers by a point, and that was a team Belmont had tied. In the first half the expected close game seemed to be panning out. BC High made a couple of decision-making errors and Belmont punished them for two tries.
However, BC High scored four tries and took a 26-12 lead into halftime.
We beat Belmont last night 54-19. We played well throughout. We had some questionable decision making in the first half that Belmont punished and took a 26-12 lead into the half.
"The boys cleaned up those decisions and executed really well in the second half, and while Belmont punched, we answered," said BC High Head Coach Paul Carty.
Boys HS Nationals Brackets are Out
The brackets and full list of game times for the Boys HS National Championships have been confirmed.
As GRR already discussed, the seeds were set this week: Boys HS National Championship Seeds Confirmed
Seed #1 plays #8, and #4 plays #5, with the winning and losing teams from those matchups facing off the next day.
Seed #2 plays #7 and #3 plays #6 with those pairs matching up again the next day. Every team in each of the three brackets has three games to play in three days. All games are 60 minutes long, which allows for a 10-minute overtime if needed (and there was an overtime game last year).
Of the 24 teams competing, nine have won a championship bracket before.
