The traditional laying out of the A-side jerseys.
A much anticipated match against The Ohio State University did not bode so well for the Michigan Rugby team this past weekend. The Wolverines were coming off a two game winning streak in Big Ten play, one of those including an upset of the Big Ten East Division leader, Indiana. Despite Michigan’s momentum, the Buckeyes forced the Wolverines into mistakes en route to a 31-7 halftime lead and a 45-17 victory.
Just like in their matches against Purdue and Indiana, the UMRFC took some time before becoming consistent in overall play. Pressure at the breakdown from OSU forced Michigan into numerous ball handling errors and penalties. In the first half, it only took two minutes before the Buckeyes got on the board after successfully splitting the posts from ten meters out. Soon after, poor defensive positioning created trouble again for Michigan. With too many players on the short side of a ruck, an outnumbered Michigan back line was left helpless in the open field with OSU on the charge. Their try and conversion in the 8th and 9th minute, respectively, increased the score to 10-0 early on. After a few quick exchanges of possession, the Buckeyes managed to drive the ball down to the 5 meter where they again swung the ball to the sidelines where Wolverine defenders were sparse. Another try and conversion put OSU up 17 just thirteen minutes into play.
Grady Bridges running in for Michigan’s first try
Finding themselves in a deep hole, the Wolverines quickly sprung to life and generated some consistent play that got them near OSU’s try zone. Eventually, Grady Bridges was able to take advantage of a lapse in the otherwise relentless Buckeye defense but silly mistakes would prevent Michigan from ever making a threatening comeback like in Bloomington. A yellow card to Dave Hiltzik for repeated infringements and a subsequent pair of OSU tries, including one as time expired, concluded a terrible first half for Michigan.
A determined Michigan A-side came out fighting in the beginning of the second half, however, an OSU try in the first five minutes of the half terminated any lingering hope for the Wolverines. In the 53rd minute, Christian Mentzer scooped up a loose ball from a ruck and sprinted under the posts for Michigan’s second try. With the exception of another try by Bridges in the 66th minute, Michigan’s offense would remain stagnant leading to defeat by a final score of 45-17.
1. Brennen Arnett (Bishar 47′)
2. Evan Rourke (Melgren 55′)
3. Jordan Ulmer
4. Matt Pilon (Van Harn 47′)
5. Drew Vecchio (Rocha 53′)
6. Dave Hiltzik (Scolnick 67′)
7. Kenny Andutan
8. Mike LaCivita
9. Ian Etheart
10. Grady Bridges
11. Sequoyah Burke-Combs
12. Christian Mentzer (Palladino 67′)
13. Jared Bosma (Taylor 55′)
14. Chris Padmos (Borowski 70′)
15. Joel Conzelmann
16. Nicholas Bishar
17. Pete Melgren
18. Sergio Rocha
19. Cole Van Harn
20. Spencer Scolnick
21. John Palladino
22. Terence Taylor
23. Mark Borowski
Tries: Bridges 16’, 66’, Mentzer 53’
Conversions: Bridges 17’
The Wolverines will conclude their Big Ten regular season with a re-match against in-state rival, Michigan State, in the senior’s last home game of the year.
In contrast to the slow starting A-side, Michigan’s Killer Bees had an impressive first half. After twenty minutes of equal play by both squads, Michigan fly half, Evan Noon would put up the first points of the game. A nice dummy to his back line and then a hard crash allowed him to get under the posts and convert his own try. Strong defensive efforts by both teams kept the scoring low until the very end of the half when Terence Taylor evaded several tackles near the 22 meter line to score his first try of the season.
The second half was a completely different story with OSU dominating for the most part. The Wolverines allowed the Buckeyes to rack up 26 unanswered points in the form of 4 tries and three conversions. The Killer Bees were sluggish on the offensive side of the ball in the second half only getting one try from Terence Taylor who, again, scored in the final seconds of the half.
1. Ben Shapiro
2. Cam Watson
3. Zach Kendall
4. Sergio Rocha
5. Will Miller
6. Spencer Scolnick
7. Chening Duker
8. Cole Van Harn
9. Max Arevuo
10. Evan Noon
11. Mark Borowski
12. John Palladino
13. Terence Taylor
14. Kevin Cheng
15. Samuel Saravolatz
16. Pete Melgren
17. Jackson Wagner
18. Oliver Gregerson
19. Chris Padmos
20. Kevin Linder
Tries: Noon 21’, Taylor 35’, 70’
Conversions: Noon 22’
Despite the losses to OSU, there was still reason to be optimistic as over a dozen UMRFC rookies got large quantities of playing time. Following the A and B side matches, the C-side honey badgers took to the pitch. OSU got a lot of ball movement from their forwards in the first half who scored 3 unanswered tries for a total of 17 points. Offensively, Michigan did not have the chemistry and experience to string together any points during the match. This lead to a routing of the UMRFC-C’s with a final score of 34-0.
1. Jackson Wagner
2. Cam Watson
3. Pete Melgren
4. Oliver Gregerson
5. Cole Van Harn (Duker 28’)
6. John Palladino (Padmos 40’)
7. Jeff Smith
8. Spencer Scolnick (Conzelmann 25’)
9. Brandon Gardner
10. Jared Bosma
11. Neal Slabbekoorn
12. Ryan McDonough
13. Vinodhan Ravichandran
14. Milos Giljen
15. Kevin Linder
16. Chening Duker
17. Chris Padmos
18. Joel Conzelmann
