Top-ranked Gonzaga seemed to be destined to play in the Boys Single-School final until the opening moments of Friday's semifinal against Indiana's Penn HS, but then things started to go south.

Penn kicked. Penalty and then ran in a try to lead 10-0. Worse yet, their HS All-American flyhalf, Ben Cima, had a played fall on his arm. At first everyone though he'd broken his arm. It turned out to be a bowed bone - still painful and worrisome, but better with some rest. Wth Cima gone and Penn on the upswing, Gonzaga looked in trouble.

"They had to fix all that themselves," said Gonzaga Director of Rugby Lee Kelly. "It was up to them to turn it around."

Captains Matt Flynn, prop, and Dominic Plantamura, No. 8, settled the team down. Kelly brought on Matt Parrish, who had done such a fine job at scrumhalf as a sub earlier in the season, and told him to play #10.Parrish did brilliantly and scrumhalf Jimmy Ronan kicked for goal very well in Cima's absence, and Gonzaga got back on track. 

Flynn was inspirational in tight, getting his forwards to hang tough against a strong Penn pack, and the backs started to move the ball.

"We knew that if we got sucked into a tight game we would be in trouble," said Kelly. "We had to stretch the field."

Gonzaga scored three times to lead 19-15 at halftime and never looked back. Winning 45-27. For a team that had fallen behind and lost their best player, it was a quick and impressive comeback.

"I am incredibly proud of the boys," said Kelly. "From the leadership of the captains to how the players just didn't panic and got back on track ... Just very proud."

Gonzaga faces Jesuit Saturday in the final.

Overtime works. With the Boys HS NIT being formatted to cover three 60-minute games over three days, rather than. Two-day tournament with an opening day of 40-minute games, the new format was able to accommodate overtime.

(Common practice is to follow the IRB guidelines that age-grade games should be no longer than 70 minutes, so a 60-minute game could have a ten-minute overtime. With players limited to 90 minutes in a day, two games in one day have to be shortened.)

So it was that Northern California's Danville Oaks and Indiana's Cathedral faced OT Friday in the HS Club semifinals.

Danville  shocked the defending champions by scoring twice within the first ten minutes. Wing Cameron Marek and No. 8 Vili Helu did the scoring honors for the Oaks. Somewhat stunned, Cathedral shored up their defense and tried to come back. It took just about the maximum amount of time.

"They are the most fundamentally sound team we've seen," said Danville coach Jon Straka. "And their counter-rucking was excellent."

But Danville kept stealing the Cathedral lineout, starving the Royal Irish of valuable possession. Twenty minutes into the first half, Joe Huntington scored for Cathedral to make it 12-5. Then, with almost no time left and two Danville players in the sin bin, Noah Schrader went over for the game-tying score.

into overtime we went, and that's when Max Schroeder scored just two minutes in to put his side up 17-12, and that's how it ended.

Cathedral faces United in Saturday's final, while Danville will have to be content with having out a scare I the defending champs and #1-ranked team, and a shot at 3rd.