At the end of the day, the Bowling Green rugby team was still unbeaten, but just barely. Playing against a Cleveland Rovers squad that boasted no less than eight former Falcons on their first side, the Falcon ruggers squeaked by the Rovers by scores of 28-25 and 14-10.
“It was like playing a mirror image of ourselves,” BG coach Roger Mazzarella said. “Heck, even my cousin (Rovers wing Tony Mazzarella) was playing against us. Toss in a narrow field, some rain, sleet, snow and gloom of night and both teams were just one dropped pass away from winning or losing.”
“Actually the weather did not affect us as much as the narrow field,” Mazzarella said. “They are a forward oriented team and we like to spin the ball wide. I’m sure that had a lot to do with the field being 15 yards thinner than regulation. Considering only half the team went on the spring break trip — I thought we looked pretty good against what was essentially a BG all-star team.”
Nonetheless, the conditions were not conducive to good rugby and for a good portion of the first match, it looked like the game would rest on the kicking toe of Falcon fly half Derek Imes and Rover fullback Paul Murray. Murray put the Rovers briefly on top with a penalty field goal only to watch Imes carve out and equally tenuous 9-3 lead with three penalty kicks of his own.
Reacting to the field conditions, the Falcons had more success by reverting to a kick and chase style of play. With Imes and center Vince Staropoli launching towering bombs, it was only a matter of time before the Rover cover defense would be caught out of position. Chasing down one of Imes’ kicks, wing Dave Demings snagged it on the first bounce and waltzed in untouched to score BG’s first try to give BG a 16-6 halftime lead after Imes’ conversion.
Taking the second half kick-off, Imes and Demings paired up on an almost exact copy of their first try for yet another try and a 23-6 lead on Imes conversion. As befitting a team that had put together an undefeated season in the fall, the Rovers stormed back with three tries and two conversions to hold a 25-23 lead with time running out in the match.
“Right when the only thing that would win the game for us was some out of the blue play — the Rovers blinked and let it happen,” Mazzarella said.
Slow to react to another Imes punt, Rover fullback Paul Murray was caught flat footed as Brian Farrell streaked by him to down the ball in the end zone to give BG the 28-25 victory.
“Big plays like that make the difference between also-rans and champions,” Mazzarella said. “Farrell is one of the fiercest competitors on this club. It’s the kind of play I’ve come to expect from him.”
With both clubs emotionally spent, the second match lacked much of the drama of the second match as BG squeezed out a 14 — 10 victory in deteriorating weather conditions. Flanker Clay Armbruster scored both of BG’s tries while fullback Dan Brandenstein landed both conversion attempts. The Rovers, while scoring a try, conversion and penalty kick, never seriously threatened the Falcon’s lead.
Bowling Green, now 8-0, will travel to Detroit on Saturday to take on yet another men’s senior side that is again dominated by former Falcons. BG is currently riding an 8-0 win streak over the Cobras covering the last four years.
