Brother Martin and St. Paul's kicked off following an exciting 22-14 come from behind victory by NOLA Gold against the Toronto Arrows at the Gold Mine in New Orleans.
Brother Martin opened the scoring when senior captain Sam Vallejos ’21 off-loaded to senior prop, Jacob Schmidt ’21, who found a gap in the St. Paul's defense. John Rink ’21 converted and Brother Martin led 7-0. St. Paul's answered when Rink's kick from within Brother Martin 22 went dead and St. Paul's was awarded a scrum from the point of the kick. St. Paul's kept the ball in tight and punched it up the middle til they found pay-dirt. The conversion was good and the score was tied at seven. Brother Martin struck next as senior fullback, Kyle Gleason ’21, knifed through the St. Paul's defense for a try. The tough conversion by Senior flyhalf, Ben Corvers ’21, failed and Brother Martin held a brief 12 - 7 lead. Junior loose forward, André Cook ’22, took the ensuing kickoff and broke free. He was tackled by the St. Paul's fullback but the tackle was deemed high and Brother Martin took the penalty and drove to the St. Paul's try line where a ruck penalty infraction cost the Crusaders an opportunity for a third try. The halftime score was Brother Martin 12 - St. Paul's 7.
St. Paul's opened the second half on fire. St. Paul's converted on field position at the start of the half again using their big men as ram rods, picking and going and running tight punches till they scored. The conversion failed and the score was tied again at 12-12. St. Paul's scored next at 50 minutes with pick and drives with their big men. This time the conversion was good and St. Paul's held a 19-12 lead. The lead was short lived as senior prop, Jacob Schmidt found the try line after a culmination of pick and drives. John Rink converted the try to tie the score once again, 19-19.
As time wound down the score remained tied until Schmidt took an inside crash ball and found a gap. He raced 55 meters and beat St. Paul's fullback sliding into the try zone to complete his hat trick. Rink converted and Brother Martin took a precarious 26-19 lead. Shortly before the end of the game Junior wing, Tyler Anclade ’22, found space on the right and sprinted for a long break. St. Paul's fullback came over for a nice tackle but Junior loose forward Andrew Lindstrom ’22 was in support. Anclade off-loaded and Lindstrom took the ball on the burst and scored. Rink again converted. Brother Martin took the kickoff and ran successive punches until the clock ran down. Rink then did the honors of putting the ball out of touch to end the game and give Brother Martin its first State Championship since 2002.
Final score: Brother Martin 33 - St. Paul's 19.
Jacob Schmidt ’21 was named Man of the Match for Brother Martin and St. Paul's Man of the Match was its scrumhalf.
