St. Ignatius wins grudge match over Mt. Carmel
Wolfpack burst regains traveling trophy
By Paul LaTour
To look at the final score it appeared St. Ignatius had little trouble against Mount Carmel Sunday afternoon on Bernie O’Brien Field at Eckersall Stadium in Chicago.
Yet, if not for a period of just over 10 minutes, the result may have been different. During that span the Wolfpack turned a 7-3 lead into a comfortable 22-3 cushion just eight minutes into the second half. The final outcome was a 32-11 win.
“We’ve been a resilient team all year,” said St. Ignatius senior Jake Rosner, whose long scoring run capped the 15-point surge. “We’ve been down in games and come back to win. That’s probably our biggest rival, so it’s always good to get the win.”
Mount Carmel (0-3-1 Tier 1 East) got on the board first, taking a 3-0 lead on a long kick from Seamus Deering near the five-minute mark of the match.
But the advantage was short-lived. St. Ignatius pushed down field for a try less than three minutes later. Senior Max Haneberg gave the Wolfpack its first points, and Hunter Joosten followed with the kick to make it 7-3.
The game stayed that way until extra time at the end of the half, when the Wolfpack worked the ball near the goal line. A series of pitches out to the wing led to Nick Henry's toss to Will Holland, who crossed the goal line near the front corner. Joosten’s sharp-angle kick gave the Wolfpack a 14-3 halftime lead.
Joosten upped the lead to 17-3 with a field goal from just inside the 22-meter line about six minutes into the second half. A short time later, Rosner recovered a loose ball, kicked it up to his hands, and raced untouched for the try and a 22-3 lead.
Mount Carmel stanched the bleeding when Deering scored on another kick that made it 22-6 with about 18 minutes left. But that was the closest the Caravan got the rest of the way.
The Wolfpack (3-1 Tier 1 East) added to its lead with tries from Joseph Cunningham and Mike Keenan. Mount Carmel's Kevin Togher closed out the scoring with try with four minutes left.
“We played hard, and did the best we could,” Togher said. “We would have liked it to have gone the other way. We’ve got to work on some things.”
Part of the Caravan’s struggles came from being shorthanded. Coach Jack Cushing said seven starters missed the game with injuries.
“We had a makeshift backline going,” Cushing said. “I’m not sure what we were expecting. We weren’t able to put it together. They had never played together before.”
The victory allowed the Wolfpack to regain possession of the Bernie O’Brien traveling trophy, which is awarded to the winner of this game. The series is tied 2-2 since the introduction of the trophy in 2007.
The Caravan won in 2007 and 2009, while the Wolfpack earned their first win since 2008.
“We knew we needed to play the whole 70 minutes so we came out swinging,” said St. Ignatius senior Bernie O’Brien, the grandson on the trophy’s namesake. “It all turned out well.”
