Indiana, Pa. - The Franciscan rugby team headed to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) for their second consecutive trip to the ARU Conference Championship to face off against East division champions, Slippery Rock University (SRU). It would be the second time in 3 weeks that the squads would play each with something on the line. With Slippery Rock enjoying a 2 week layoff due to Baldwin Wallace forfeiting their match last weekend, the Barons came in with confidence over their big victory against John Carroll. With a short bench, the gents in green and gold knew they had to play with resiliency and confidence. 

The match was a slobberknocker as both teams came out playing a physical and punishing match.  Neither team was able to score for the first 23 minutes or so, with SRU dominating ball possession but committing several penalties. Franciscan, however, were not able to take advantage on the free plays, giving the ball back to SRU in good field position. The Barons were flat for most of the half, with untimely drops and missed tackles. SRU were able to put points on the board first at around the 35^th minute and missed the conversion to give them a 5-0 lead. Franciscan finally got on the board after several good phases to get into the 22 of SRU. The backline of Vincent Prezzia, John Thibault and Matt Orsay connected on a try by Orsay and Prezzia made conversion gave them a 7-5 lead with about 10 minutes left in the opening half. With about 5 minutes left, a penalty try for SRU gave them an automatic 7 points for a high tackle by John Paul Leatherby which also resulted in a yellow card and a 10 minute sin bin. 

After the half, with the score 12-7, the Barons continued with their defense and made the hard hits and tackles to prevent SRU from taking advantage of the Barons being short-handed one player.  Once Leatherby entered back into the fray, SRU was able to capitalize on poor tackling out wide to punch in a try to give them a 19-7 lead with about 30 minutes left to play. SRU was again able to score out wide to the same side and dotted down the try after a few missed tackles resulted in the player scoring. The conversion kick was missed and Slipper Rock had a commanding 22-7 lead. The Barons, however, kept on fighting and never gave up, eventually getting a try from freshman Brendan Lacey, who received a pass from Prezzia and sidestepped a defender and took on two more defenders and still made his way for his first career try. Prezzia couldn't make the difficult kick from the far sideline and the score was 22-12 with about 5 minutes left to play. There wasn't enough time for the Barons to stage a comeback and they dropped the match 22-12 against a physical SRU side.  It was a gritty performance by the Barons and they know they let this one slip away from them. 

With the lost, Franciscan will next play against Xavier University in the play-in qualifier on Saturday November 12^th at Grove City for a chance to advance to regionals.  The winner will go to St. Louis, while the loser will have their season ended. The time of the match will be announced later this week.

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