University Heights, Ohio - The Baron ruggers hit the road after a bye week to face #15 nationally ranked John Carroll for the first round of the ARU playoffs. The winner would move on to face #9 Slippery Rock University, which received a bye due to a forfeit by Baldwin Wallace, for the ARU championship. The match was scheduled for an early 11:00 am start time, putting the Barons at a disadvantage to getting up early and making the trek to John Carroll at 7am. Once Franciscan arrived and settled into the warm up routine, John Carroll's coach informed the Barons coaches that there was no referee for the match due to some kind of miscommunication between them and the Ohio Ref association. A ref was found and the match was slated for a noon start. Franciscan, already facing adversity with the strange start time, a short bench (they only had 18 players) and waiting around, were eager to get started.

They pounced early and often, stunning the home crowd, scoring three tries in the first 15 minutes with constant pressure by the forwards and timely off loads by the backline. John Paul Leatherby started the scoring with a pick and go for the match's first points. Vincent Prezzia converted the kick after and staked the Barons to a 7-0 lead. A few minutes later, Matt Orsay, playing a new position, took an offload from John Thibault and crashed into the John Carroll's defense and dotted it down. Prezzia again made the kick after, upping the lead to 14. The backline tandem of Prezzia and Thibault connected for a beautiful give and go try when Thibault offloaded an inside pass to Prezzia and then Prezzia quickly off loaded back to Thibault who rocketed into orbit for a 50 meter try. Prezzia, who was on point with his kick conversions throughout the match, made the conversion and just like that, Franciscan was on the board 21-0, silencing the John Carroll crowd. John Carroll was able to finally put points on the board with two tries of their own but missing the two conversion kicks, and regaining momentum as the first half ended with Franciscan up 21-10 . The second half started with a quick turnover by the Barons and John Carroll were able to capitalize on it and score their own third try in row to bring the score to 21-15 after they missed their third straight conversion kick. The Barons settled down and continued to play their fast pace of play. An illegal dump tackle by John Carroll saw their player receiving a yellow card and getting sent to the sin bin after several warnings from the ref of dangerous tackles that John Carroll were intent on doing. Franciscan took advantage and the onslaught was on. The Barons moved down the pitch easily and again Prezzia took a pass and was able to freeze the defense as Thibault took the offload from Prezzia and ran untouched for his second try of the match. Prezzia again converted the kick and the score was 28-15. The Barons scored again moments later on a breakaway run by Thibault who offloaded to Ethan Peterson when the defense folded on Thibault and Peterson made a nice pass to Nick Patryn who dotted down the try. Prezzia made the difficult angle kick to push the lead to 35-15. John Carroll was able to take advantage on a Franciscan turnover and ran in a long try as the Barons were close to punching in another score. John Carroll was able to convert the kick and the score was 35-22. Franciscan again created a turnover and were close to scoring when they turned it over on a knock into John Carroll's try, giving John Carroll a scrum outside of their 5 meter line. The Barons scrum was powerful on the day and continued to dominate John Carroll's bigger pack. John Carroll was pushed back into their try zone and Steve Kilmer was able to simply dive on the ball for an easy try. Prezzia missed his only conversion on the day as the Barons went up 40-22 with 20 minutes left to play. Franciscan wouldn't slow down though as Thibault again set up a try (his third assist) by off-loading to Noah Schleuter after getting to the breakdown and picking the ball up. Prezzia cleared the posts making the score 47-22. The Barons kept the pedal to the metal and scored once more with Orsay taking an offload from Leatherby and thundering his way for a long try and diving it down for the Barons 8th try of the match. Prezzia capped off his day with another kick converted-hitting 7 out of 8 conversions, and with that try, Franciscan upset the favorites 54-22.

The Franciscan forwards were completely dominate in the scrums, lineouts and pod play with excellent work rate to hit the breakdowns and secure the rucks. The Baron backline were able to accelerate and make the offload passes when the defense collapsed on individual players. It was an overall solid performance by each of the starting players. Patryn was able to make the change from the forwards to the backs due to injury and didn't miss a beat. Brady Cutler started his second game but in a different position and did an admirable job both on defense and on offense. Matt Hennig took over at 8man for the injured Clay Boyle. Gabriel Chamblee saw extensive action due to injury and did well at a new position. Orsay adjusted to a new position and was instrumental in his hard, punishing running style and scoring two tries.

Franciscan will travel to IUP next Saturday to face off against #9 Slippery Rock for the ARU Championship and the chance to get the automatic qualifier to regionals in St. Louis. The Barons know that while the win was nice and necessary, they have unfinished business. They will look to improve on their last result against SRU when they lost 33-26 for the only blemish on their record. IUP will be hosting the ARU championships for DII, Small College and the College Bowl Series (teams that didn't make the playoffs). Kickoff is slated for Noon and it may be livestreamed. Check back later in the week for more information on the livestream.

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