Back on Track

The STH Eagles traveled to Stony Point for a key early season match on Saturday and won by the narrowest of margins -29-26. St. Thomas was trying to recover from last week's 23-8 loss to Austin Westlake and needed a win to regain momentum. The Tigers proved to be physically tough and skilled opponents and gave the Eagles everything they could handle.

The Eagles dominated the Tigers the last two seasons, winning 65-0, and 57-0, but the Tigers were much improved and under the guidance of head coach Jesse Adams were 2-0 going into their rematch with St. Thomas. Despite admonishments not to take Stony Point lightly, the Eagles seemed to play much of the match in a mental haze, believing that this year's game would be an automatic replay of the previous two.

The Eagles started the match in style with Dixon Garnett scoring a try in the first minute and a half of the game. They scored again off a long run by Will Gutkowski (4:33) and appeared to be on their way to another lopsided victory, but the Tigers were not willing to lay down nor give up the fight. They scored two tries of their own and led at halftime 14-12.

Stony Point pushed their lead to 21-12 early in the second half, before Conor O'Brien scored(53:44), bringing the Eagles to within two points -21-19. The Tigers answered with another try three minutes later and St. Thomas appeared to be in real danger with the score 26-19. The last 15 minutes of the game were all Eagles though, as John Boudreaux scored a brilliant try (61:00) when he stole the ball from the opposition scrumhalf near the goaline - diving over for the score. The conversion kick was critical and Sebastian Gracia hit a difficult 25 meter kick from the sideline to even the score at 26-26.

The Eagles pushed into Tiger territory with three minutes remaining. After as series of line-breaks, Stony Point was penalized for diving over the top. Gracia calmly slotted the penalty kick (67:32) giving the Eagles a 29-26 lead. They then played stifling defense for the last minute and a half to secure the comeback win.

This was a critical win for the Eagles, who did not seem fully recovered from the loss to Westlake. It was also an indication of the how tough the road to the state championship will be for St. Thomas. The competitive level of the league has risen dramatically and there are no easy wins for any team. St. Thomas travels to Dallas Jesuit next weekend to defend its Bishop Cup title against the Rangers. The season is off to an interesting and exciting start!