In what seemed like déjà-vu, the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints defeated their cross-border rivals the Kansas City Junior Blues 19-7 to take the season series 2-1 in a repeat scenario of 2011. The Junior Blues, riding high on their recent success, found themselves down 7-Nill at the half. The Saints coach and former USA  prop Tim Kluempers summed it up best,” I thought the boys played with a lot of heart and took advantage of the opportunities we created. Our defense in the first half was outstanding to keep them out of the try-zone despite having them camped in our end for over 12-minutes.”

The second half saw the teams exchange converted Trys. The Blues attacked the Saints with tight pack play while the Saints countered with sure tackling, ball handling and speed. The Saints sealed the victory with a late Try. Kluempers continued, “It was fun to measure ourselves against a great team like the Jr. Blues. Especially after they went to Denver the week before and beat a tough Glendale Side and then defeated the current 2nd ranked Colorado Springs U19 squad. Our boys are working hard to fine tune a few things in preparation for the very talented teams that we will play at Nationals.