The two high school teams that finished second in the nation in their respective championships met over the weekend, with the result having significant rankings ramifications.

Gonzaga (DC) lost to Sacramento Jesuit (CA) in the boys single-school national final last spring, and Fort Hunt (VA) lost to Royal Irish (IN) in the boys high school club final. Those two runners-up, both ranked No. 5 by FloRugby in their respective divisions, faced off Saturday, with Gonzaga coming away as the 24-12 winner.

The Eagles went on to beat West End on Sunday.

"We've been bit by the injury bug, but the team played well," said Gonzaga head coach Peter Baggetta, who did not start High School All-Americans Owen Sheehy or Ian Kilcullen (flyhalf and inside center, respectively) over the weekend.

Fort Hunt took an early 12-0 lead against the Eagles, and at halftime, Gonzaga resolved to move the ball more.

"We kept our composure," Baggetta said. "We identified where the space was, and we attacked the space or exploited it with our kicking game. And defensively we were very good."

Shutting out Fort Hunt in the second half takes some doing, and loose forwards Will Lyke and Calder Jones led the charge.

Meanwhile, the midfield of Alex Billups and Ryan Ebel, combining with relatively young flyhalf Juan Molinari, had the offense singing in the second half.

The pick of the tries, however, had to be lock Jack Dufour chasing his own kick to gather and score.

With the win, Gonzaga rebounded from a recent loss to St. Ignatius (Ohio)—a setback that annoyed the Eagles, as they felt they could have won it.

But Gonzaga has lost early games before, and Baggetta said the idea is to learn from those losses and come back stronger. The Eagles will have to do that quickly, as a game with defending high school club champion Royal Irish is on the horizon.

What all of this does to the rankings remains to be seen. Other high school results will also shake things up. Jesuit beat Granite Bay (CA) over the weekend, while single-school No. 2 Penn and high school club No. 4 SFGG both lost.

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