The BG Club Rugby team dominated Louisville University in their season opener Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons’ experience, tenacity and hustle were, simply, too much for the Cardinals to handle. BG ended up trumping Lousiville 62-0.
The Falcons were relentless in their scoring efforts, scoring 32 of their 62 points in the first half. BG seemed unstoppable once they were within scoring distance, only being stopped less than a handful of times.
Griffen Palmer kicked off the scoring with a try from short yardage, his first of two tries on the day. Griffen’s speed overpowered the Cardinal defense all afternoon, as he scored twice and made another run for about 50 yards that led to another Falcon score.
After the game, Palmer was happy with the win. Palmer said chemistry is one of his team’s strengths.
“Our back line played very well,” he said. “Experience was a strong point for us. The team rolled with the punches and played with really good chemistry.”
Sean McFarland scored as well for BG, pushing the score to 12-0. Adam Regini followed suit, scoring another for the Falcons. Mike Powell, Allen Viancourt, Niall McNamara and Steve Fritsch all also contributed to the Falcon surplus of points.
Although Sora did not score, he was a major contributor for the Bowling Green offensive attack and their stellar defensive play. Sora did well in scrum play, recovering the ball multiple times. He also provided a spark for the Falcon defense, stealing the ball away from the Cardinals’ offense and turning those steals into good runs and opportunities for BG rugby.
After the game, head coach Tony Mazzarella was stern but happy with the performance.
“I am pretty happy,” he said. “Some things went wrong but a lot of things went right. We committed way too many penalties. We’re going to have to work on that for next week. Overall, I’m happy with the result.”
BG played a second game on Saturday afternoon, giving their second team some playing time. First year players Ryan Steinmetz, Anthony Boddy and A.J. Geoghegan played well, along with James Upshaw and Kevin Andujar. Although a late score by Louisville ridded Bowling Green of a potential 2 game shut out, BG ended up winning 25-5.
Bowling Green travels to Columbus next week to play Ohio State, who should provide better competition than Louisville.
Director Roger Mazzarella said BG has some progress to make before facing the Buckeyes Saturday.
“Ohio State is always strong in their forward play, whereas we are strong in our back play,” he said. “If we improve on our forward play and our set-scrums, we should be able to run all over them.”
