After losing last week to Davenport, the Bowling Green club rugby team looked to bounce back this Saturday against the Ball State University Cardinals. The Falcons did just that, trumping Ball State 59-7.
Before the game, head coach Tony Mazarella said his team needed to build off of the positives from the Davenport loss in order to win against Ball State.
“We just have to bounce back a little bit. We did some good things last week and we really need to build off of that and correct the little mistakes we made,” he said. “We’re going to apply what we worked on in practice and have a good game.”
Both teams began the game with very sloppy play. Neither team could get anything going offensively and could not retain possession for long enough to get a good scoring effort. Much like last week, the Falcons needed a spark to obtain momentum and confidence.
Sean McFarland kicked off BG’s scoring efforts with a short yardage try, beginning the Falcons’ rout of the Cardinals. Although turnovers continued to plague BG throughout the first half, the Falcons offensive attack deemed too much for Ball State to contain.
Mario Mockus and Griffen Palmer both had solid performances, showcasing their speed. Palmer assisted Mockus on the Falcons’ second scoring attempt after the both of them zipped through the Cardinals defense. Palmer had multiple good runs on the day, one going for around 40 yards and another going for about 50 yards, the second setting up a BG try before halftime. BG went into halftime with a 38-0 lead.
“Overall the team played well, but we have to work on little mistakes,” Mockus said.
Steve Fritsch also provided a substantial spark for the Falcons after laying a massive hit on a Cardinal defender near the goal line before halftime, scoring a try for the Falcons and causing an uproar from both the crowd and the sideline. To begin the second half, Fritsch kept the momentum on BG’s side with a 50-yard burst up the field.
The Falcons continued their scoring efforts throughout the second half but continued playing sloppy. Although BG ended up blowing out Ball State 59-7, the Falcons still committed many costly errors. Had the Falcons had a more fundamentally sound game, the score may have been substantially higher. Tony Mazzarella said the Falcons played a sloppy last 20 minutes.
“We improved some things offensively. We really broke down on our discipline, though,” he said. “They [Ball State] played better than us in the second half. If we want to beat better teams and go on to win bigger games, including a MAC [Mid-American Conference] championship, we have to show more discipline.”
BG goes on the road to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to take on Central Michigan University next Saturday. The Falcons look to correct their little mistakes in practice this week and apply those improvements on the field.
