On March 6th St. Thomas High School clashed with Dallas Jesuit at Granger Stadium in the sixteenth annual Bishop’s Cup to hopefully bring the trophy home to STH for the first time in 4 years. In 2022 St. Thomas and Dallas Jesuit battled in the state semifinal game and suffered a painful loss by one try to Jesuit. Since then Dallas Jesuit has won every game since, with last year even beating St. Thomas with a 40 point difference.

“I’ve lost to these guys for 3 years now and I’m tired of it” senior Team Captain Peter Bryant.

Thursday was a cool early spring night and overall perfect weather for a rugby game. In years previous it had snowed on game day so players , coaches , and parents were very grateful for pleasant weather for once. St. Thomas students, Dallas Jesuit parents and even some St. Agnes students filled Granger Stadium at 6pm to watch this clash.

The Dallas Jesuit bus arrived 30 minutes late but after a short delay The teams eagerly took the field. Dallas Jesuit set on proving they own the unranked St. Thomas, and St. Thomas set on gaining their respected reputation they once had.

The night started with JV STH rugby securing their first victory of the year over the Dallas Jesuit JV team. This undoubtedly set the precedent for the varsity team and only got their hopes higher. The Varsity Game started hot, With Dallas Jesuit easily driving down and scoring the first try of the game within 3 minutes.

Despite this early blow, St. Thomas matched and scored a try of their own but missed the kick. Dallas Jesuit soon realized this wasn’t going to be the blow out they expected. Xander Young 26’ soon broke out and scored another try taking the lead for St. Thomas.

St. Thomas was beating Dallas Jesuit for the first time in 4 years. By the end of first half Dallas Jesuit had scored again but St. Thomas was still in the lead. Hopes were high for St. Thomas was up for halftime but the job was not finished. In the second half Dallas Jesuit came out even harder than in the first and St. Thomas was tired.

Dallas Jesuit scored another try on St. Thomas took the lead, score now 15-19. The Dallas Jesuit offense seemed to dominate the tired St. Thomas defense and always seemed to be only 20 yards away from the try line for the first 20 minutes of the second half. But the St. Thomas’s defense held.

St. Thomas forward tackles a Dallas Jesuit player. Photo by Porter Garza 25’. Then Berhane Linebeck 25’ made a mad dash across the field to score and take the lead back. 22-19.

Ten minutes left in the game and it was still anyone’s game. Dallas Jesuit slowly crept its way up but St. Thomas seemed to be holding until a Jesuit Back slipped through the line dove for the try. St. Thomas was down 22-26 with 3 minutes left. The Eagles did not give up though, they kept pushing and pushed their way up to ten yards away from the try line. There was a scrum called and St. Thomas pushed and the ball was thrown out and eventually pushed over to score. 27-22 1 minute left in the game and all St. Thomas had to hold Dallas Jesuit off.

However Dallas Jesuit pushed hard though. They were within 20 yards of scoring but St. Thomas held them and won by 1 point.

For the first time in 4 years the Bishop’s Cup Trophy was back in St Thomas’s hand.