Editor’s Note—The following information was provided by Cynthia Passalino.
The Lake Forest High School Harriers Rugby Club captured the Illinois state championship for the second year in a row, defeating Fenwick High School, 31-15, at the Chicago Blaze Rugby Club pitch Monday.
Lake Forest had advanced to the Finals by walloping St. Rita, 29-7, in the quarterfinals and knocking out Downers Grove, 35-24, in the semi-final match last Friday. This is only the third time in Illinois high school rugby history that a team has repeated for the championship.
In a recap of the exciting semi-final match against the previously unbeaten Downers Grove Renegades, the match see-sawed back and forth until the Harriers went a man down on a 10-minute controversial penalty midway through the second half.
The advantage clearly switched to the Renegades at this point, and they promptly scored two successive tries for a 24-21 lead. With five minutes remaining, the Harriers, now at full strength, mounted a furious comeback, with Peter Passalino scoring two tries on long outside dashes in the last three minutes of the match for a 35-24 thrilling come-from-behind victory.
The Harriers’ stalwart flyhalf Wes Siu successfully converted all the 2-point conversion kicks after tries to give the Harriers maximum points in the match.
The title match against the Friars featured yet another clutch comeback by Lake Forest in front of a capacity crowd. Despite repeatedly pushing the ball to within yards of the try line to no avail, the Harriers found themselves down, 10-0, at the half when the Friars scored a second try in the last minute of the first half.
Starting the second half a man down, with the score and the momentum clearly in Fenwick’s favor, Harrier coaches John Walker and Ed Giangiorgi took a gamble on a Fenwick penalty, instructing Passalino to go for a 3-point penalty kick from nearly 40 yards out; the kick sailed through the uprights putting Lake Forest on the board for the first time, down 10-3.
The Harriers promptly marched down the field with Matt Harmon ramming the ball over for their first try, and Siu converting from a sharp left angle to knot the match at 10-10. The Harriers never looked back, scoring three more unanswered tries, one on an inside drive, to seal the match and the state championship for Lake Forest, 31-15.
The Lake Forest Harriers were led all year and in the playoff run by many of their seniors including the Richard Daniels, Johnny Frame, and Chris Musacchio, Blake Parsons, Rankin Draa, Diego Rojas, Michael Mariani, Troy Crow, Dyrell Clark, Freeman, Jack Badenhausen and Wilson Veech,The entire squad was anchored and led by senior team captains Siu, Jack Picchietti and Passalino.
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