DORCHESTER — Once again, the BC High boys rugby team is in the MIAA D-I state final, where they’ll once again be met by Xaverian.
The top-seeded Eagles handled No. 4 Weymouth with ease in the semi-final round on Thursday at Murphy Family Stadium, rolling to a 69-14 victory and officially earning the right to defend their title in a rematch of last year’s championship contest.
“We’ve been looking forward to this,” senior Conrad Babka said. “We knew we were going to get back here. It’s good to finally know we got another chance to win another title.”
BC holds the most state championships (four) of any school since the MIAA sanctioned rugby as a varsity sport in 2015. Meanwhile, Xaverian is still searching for its first.
The Hawks defeated Belmont on Wednesday to punch their ticket to the championship game, hoping to have another shot at the Eagles after falling just short against them last year.
With just 28 minutes left, Xaverian trailed by 16 points but whittled the deficit down to just two, pushing BC High to the absolute brink before the Eagles held on for a narrow 40-38 win.
When BC High (5-0) and Xaverian (3-1-1) met once again during the regular season this year, it was in an equally competitive match that ended with the Eagles escaping by the skin of their teeth via a 36-35 win.
That’s what made the BC High’s matchup versus Weymouth so important. Even against a team in its first year at the D-I level, the Eagles didn’t want to get in the habit of making mistakes now, knowing how costly they can be next week.
“It’s fine margins,” said BC High coach Paul Carty. “It’s about making sure we do all the small things. We can’t try to do too much or get too excited. We just have to go out and play another rugby game.”
It was abundantly clear that BC High meant business when it jumped out to a 12-0 lead straight out of the gate.
The Wildcats made a faint attempt to push back by getting on the board with a try from Naheem Ridore at the 14:45 mark, only for the Eagles to shove them back down further by scoring just four minutes later.
It was then that Weymouth tried to get aggressive. All that did, though, was play right into the Eagles hands, literally, as Babka swooped in and picked off a pass, taking it 50 yards in the other direction for a try that put the game out of reach before the end of the first half.
“You have to be able to put your foot on the gas,” Babka said. “We’ve been in games where we were up and then let up and let the other team back into the game. On a game like today, we were up big at halftime, and kept our pedal to the metal.”
Babka finished the day with three tries as BC High continued to stretch its lead by racking up 33 points in the second half.
Still, the Eagles know that defeating Xaverian won’t come as easy.
While the Eagles are an incredibly athletic unit that can bob and weave around would-be tacklers, they’ll have little room to operate against a Hawks team that plays purely with brute strength and power.
“They’re going to bring that physicality,” Carty said. “That’s what they do. They are just blunt force, and that is not easy against good athletes. It’s should make for a good, good matchup.”
The Eagles and Hawks will collide for the championship on Saturday, June 14, at Curry College.
