On March 20 and March 27, Jesuit Rugby headed into arguably two of its toughest games of the year against highly ranked teams Stony Point (Rock Rugby) and Lake Travis. These two teams are perennial powerhouses and no easy challenge any year for Jesuit Rugby.
Head Coach Anthony Mattacchione said these games were very important “not only for the league standings and playoff rankings but in terms of having a target on our backs with the national rankings and having knocked off the #4 Combined/Blended school in the country in Colorado Springs.” He placed strong emphasis on sticking to the “basics and execution of skills” if they wanted to play these two teams tight and come out with a victory.
The first game versus Rock Point ended sourly for the Rangers as they suffered one of their few losses on the season. The injury-riddled Rangers fell 5-20, and it was clear that the Rangers were not in sync throughout the course of the match. However Matt Slovak ’15 stood out individually, “playing well on both sides of the ball, stopping some key defensive breaks through the line and scoring the only try for the game near the end of the 1st half.”
Senior leaders Cole Wilson ’15 and Chris Madonna ’15 helped direct the game from on the field in both games. Their leadership is seen by the coaches and noticed by the players. Madonna made it clear that “[headed] into the game [his] goals were to play to the best of [his] ability and win the game and get the housed point needed for [the team] to pull ahead in the standing.”
After the Stony Point Game and looking at Lake Coach Matta said, “We actually have many players returning from injury, school commitments and a deeper experienced bench to draw from. Key players who’ve been together for 3 and 4 years makes playing together almost instinctual. Communication amongst these guys is like a 6th sense and they know what to expect from each other in certain situations. We’ve actually taken a more physical approach to our training earlier this week with focus on how to protect and turnover the ball in situations that require a quick reaction to what’s going on and defending any breakdowns in play that continue to unfold as teams jockey for the possession of the ball.”
Lake Travis is such a formidable opponent that Coach Mattachione explained that they needed huge play from big name guys such as Joey Nuchereno ’15, Taegoon Kim ’15, and Edward Talatala ’15. These seniors all had very impressive games as they have repeatedly all year, but it was simply not enough at the time. Lake Travis won the game 20-5.
Sophomore Michael Geisler ’17 said that he “was very impressed with how the team played, but it was simply not enough to secure the W. The team went into the game with the mindset that even though some key players were missing, it would not stop them from achieving their goal.” He then added, “Sometimes a few plays can completely change the outcome of the game, but we know that we can make a deep run in playoffs.”
Mattachione is very proud of how the program is doing this year, saying, “This year we’ve tripled the number of seniors from last year (from 6 to about 17 this year) and the brotherhood on and off the field has helped develop a team concept and togetherness that we’ve been missing as a key element in the past few years when our senior class numbers were about 6-9 players. Also the size of our program and committed players has grown to about 50 players and growing in comparison to 35 this time last year. This helps when we make a run at the end of the season and need to bring up players for game experience, missing players for injuries and outside commitments like college visits, family events and illness.”
Make sure to come out and support the Rugby Team as they head into the end of the season and playoffs.
