Eagles Open with Tough Conference Win over SPX

The Varsity XV opened their conference play with an exciting 28-3 win over St. Pius X on Friday night.  After opening the season with a 98-0 victory over Brother Martin, many expected the Eagles to run away with Friday night's match, however a solid defense and some excellent tactical kicking from SPX flyhalf David John Selby kept the Panthers in the game.

Man of the Match Josh Harris

The Panthers opened the scoring with an early penalty by Selby, which met with some excitement from the SPX fans.  These would be the only points allowed during the game as the Eagles produced an impressive defensive effort.  "I thought our defensive effort was much improved over last week," commented Coach Brett Mills, "We fixed some defensive structure issues during training and when combined with some extremely physical contact at the tackle contest, we were able to put the Panthers on the back foot all match."

Josh Pane opened the scoring with a try for the Eagles right after SPX got on the board.  Josh took an eight-man pick and muscled his way over after the Eagles had turned the ball over on the restart. Prop Nate McKinney gave STH a 14-3 halftime lead when he punched in another try from a meter out.  

It wasn't until midway through the second half that Riley Bishop scored a 44 meter try off a beautiful dummy and run.  His conversion made the score 21-3 and broke a close match open.  The last try of the match was a pushover try by Griffin Maat, who made some fantastic runs to get his team in scoring position.  The Eagles walked away with a well-fought 28-3 win and scored bonus points for their four try performance.  This was an excellent way to start the conference schedule and a good test of the physicality of this Eagles squad.  The Eagles travel to the Woodlands on Saturday for a key matchup which will have playoff ramifications later in the season.

Man of the Match - Forwards: Robert Gonzales and Sam Yeboah were named Men of the Match for their defensive efforts.  Both players dominated their opponents and were a major factor in shutting down the SPX offense.

Man of the Match - Backs: Josh Harris was named Man of the Match for the backs.  He ran some fantastic lines throughout the game, but was absolutely stellar on defense, with numerous bone-crunching tackles during the contest.

First XV

1. Robert Gonzales

2. George Michael

3. Nate McKinney

4. Sam Yeboah

5. Seamus Sullivan

6. Michael Gentempo

7. Griffin Maat

8. Josh Pane (Captain)

9. Kyle Walker

10. Riley Bishop

11. Miguel Cano

12. Blake Steele

13. Josh Harris

14. Derek Allen

15. Eli Young