The playoff quarterfinals kicked off Wednesday, May 9, at Brother Rice as the home Crusaders hosted the Arlington Stallions. Call it playoff jitters, but despite controlling possession throughout much of the first half, the score remained knotted up 0-0 almost 20 minutes in. Strong forward play kept the ball in Crusader end, and despite several opportunities, the backline couldn’t execute the desired result.

Then in the 19th minute, the Crusaders had an excellent opportunity to attack with a scrum center 20 yards out.  Derek McMahon did a great job to keep a loose ball alive, and after some strong picks and jams by the forward pack, Dan Schmidt took another over for the score.  Danny Lyons was successful with the conversion and a 7-0 Rice lead. Lyons would later hit a penalty to add to the lead as Brother Rice took that 10-0 lead into halftime.

The Stallions of Arlington came out strong to start the second half.  Despite their intent to come out firing, the Crusader defense weathered the storm and protected their try line.  Strong backline defense led by the kick chase and counter attacking ability of Nolan Corley, Alex Lynch, and Justin Vainer kept the Stallions out.

The Crusaders came back into Arlington territory and again found themselves with favorable attacking position to utilize a slit backs formation.  Mike Houston took the ball strong side, threw a “dummy pass” to Pat Watson, and fed Justin Vainer down the near touchline.  Houston showed great effort on the play by supporting Vainer and taking the next ball up another 10 meters.  Vainer, in turn, took the next pass from McMahon into contact before McMahon found Ryan Flynn in space as the flanker broke a tackle and dashed 20 yards for the score.  Lyons again was good on the conversion and a 17-0 Rice lead

Brother Rice kept the pressure on, and Houston again took initiative by taking a quick tap penalty from 25 yards out.  He tried to offload to Yusif Ismail but put the ball on the ground.  Ismail was quick to pounce on it and take it forward.  James Gannon ran a hard charging line for what looked like another score.  Regardless, the Crusaders were able to recycle, and Flynn again dotted down for the try and 24-0 margin.

Morales tried to put the nail in the coffin with another quick tap penalty but would be denied.  However, Bart Oborka, making his first start, took control of an overthrown Stallion lineout and charged forward to get the Crusaders on the front foot.  McMahon then took a snipe around the right fringe and came up just short of the tryline.  When the Stallions couldn’t roll away, it left the Crusaders with a scrum 5 meters out.    Lyons “dummied” Houston, who took out 2 defenders on the play, and Lyons was able to go through untouched for the final score.  Lyons converted his own try to round out the 31-0 victory.

The Crusaders move onto the state semi-finals and will host the winner of Mt. Carmel and Naperville.  That game is being played Saturday, May 12, at 10:00 A.M. in Naperville and is the rematch of an earlier season Mt. Carmel win.

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TRIES: Schmidt, Flynn (2), Lyons

Conversions: Lyons 3 of 3

Penalties: Lyons 1 of 1