Despite several personnel changes and battling a stiff wind and a sloppy field for the second week in a row, the Bowling Green rugby team crafted yet another pair of victories over two senior men’s teams early Monday
evening.
The Falcons defeated Detroit, another team loaded with BG grads, 32-17 and the Battle Creek Griffons 27-15. BG’s rookie side took the club’s first loss of the season coming in on the short end of a 14-7 score against Detroit’s rookies.
“I’m proud of how the guys handled not only the opposition, but also all the intangibles this weekend,” BG head coach Roger Mazzarella said. “We took on a bigger, heavier team on slop for a field and out-hustled them.”
“General Nathan Bedford Forrest said battles are won by who gets there ‘firstest with the mostest,'” he added. “Any Detroit player with the ball never went more than a couple yards before being smothered with brown and orange jerseys.”
Detroit’s attempt to play a ball control offense against BG failed miserably. The Cobras might recycle possession 10 straight times only to watch helplessly as flankers Brian Farrell and Art Pietrangelo poached the ball and flung it to one of the Falcons fleet backs.
“I warned our coach all week that we had to keep the ball in tight and out of the hands of BG’s backs,” Detroit captain and BG grad Todd Porinsky said. “We’d bust our butt to get down to their goal line and one turnover later we’re on the losing end of a 90 yard footrace and it’s seven points to BG.”
Porinsky, now a Secret Service agent in Detroit, scored all of Detroit’s points with three tries and a conversion.
“I guess you could say that BG did all the scoring today,” he said.
Pietrangelo opened the floodgates on the outside by taking one of Farrell’s poached balls down the sideline for a try in a scenario that would be repeated three more times.
Pietrangelo then assisted on center Ian Gagnon’s try, again with a poached ball. Gagnon then returned the favor by feeding center Jake Puhl who proceeded to pin ball his way through most of the Cobra defense before touching down under the posts.
Wing Dave Demings closed out the last of BG’s tries in classic fashion — a poached ball by Farrell, the ball swung wide and a no contest footrace into the end zone. Fly half Derek Imes continued his match towards a third straight one hundred point season as he booted three conversions, a penalty field goal and a rare drop kicked goal.
Battle Creek proved to be a tougher nut to crack as the Falcons beat the Griffons 27-15.
“We did our best to shut BG off on the outside but they are a good enough team to exploit the holes that creates elsewhere,” BC coach Al Houser said.
With the Griffons flooding the outside with defenders, the Falcons turned to a smash mouth offense that rammed the ball up the middle.
Senior prop Andy Hughes bulled his way over the goal line for a pair of tries, as did center Ben Fledderjohann. Flanker Rich Hines tallied a solo try and fly half Boyd Davis only managed to convert one his five conversion attempts.
The Falcons’ rookies dropped their match to their Detroit counterparts. Wing Scott Wallace scored BG’s only try and fly half Mike Norton converted.
The Falcons, now 10-1, will host their first home match of the season on Saturday. BG will take on the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, a team rapidly developing to be a thorn in the Falcon’s side.
“They’re mobile, they’re quick and they have set their sights on beating us as the key to a successful season,” Mazzarella said. “The last few matches have been decided by just a few points and I’m sure they coming up here loaded for bear.”
Game time is 2 p.m. at BG’s College Park Rugby Field.
