STEUBENVILLE - After three away matches in 10 days, the Franciscan rugby team was glad to be home and hosting a home tilt versus the Golden Tornadoes of Geneva.  In a showdown of two undefeated 2-0 clubs, the Barons took control in just the first 10 minutes of the match and never looked back, defeating Geneva 44-5.

Franciscan capitalized on an errant off load by Geneva and Rafe Lewis scooped up the ball and took off for the unassisted try, with the conversion kick failing, which is about the only negative thing to take away from this game.  The Barons struggled on the conversion, making just two kicks on eight attempt, however, a few of those kicks were from difficult angles. 

There were eight tries scored in all but what set up those eight tries were the unselfish passing and sacrificing of several players to make the extra play and help set the scores up.

Man of the Match Luke Hall was simply on point with his bowling ball running style, clearing out space and then offloading passes to support runners who would score. Hall led the team with two assists that directly lead to two tries, one by David Prezzia and the other by Anthony Hobbs. Hall also had several other offloads that indirectly led to scores. He set the tone with his hard running style. Meanwhile Prezzia, Lewis and Zach Barnes continued their knack of finding the try zone with 2 tries each of their own and several nice passes throughout the back line. Hobbs was relentless with setting up the quick ball, keeping Geneva's defense on their heels all game long.

Freshmen Paul Hebert and Michael Bohman both figured into the scoring as well with each assisting on a direct try with timely passing. Cader Coleman scored the first try of his career with a nice offload from Gabe Iacoviello.

All in all, the Barons played lock down defense and controlled the tempo of the game with their steady playing style.  Next up, they take on University Pitt-Johnstown on Saturday September 28 at 1:00 pm.