Morgantwon, W.Va.- The Barons traveled to Morgantown, West Virginia for the WVU "Chickens" 7's tournament on a cold, dreary, Saturday with sleet making several appearances throughout the day. They were placed in a pool with Wheeling, Frostburg St. A, SRU B/Motley side and WVU B. The ruggers faced DI juggernaut Wheeling in their first matchup with the West Virginia squad since their combined training session last month. Franciscan started well but could not capitalize on an early turnover by Wheeling and lost momentum after Wheeling dotted down their first try, quickly followed another one. Wheeling would go on to win 43-0. The Barons would regroup and win against Frostburg St's first side, 35-7 and blank the Slippery Rock B/Motley side 50-0 to secure second place in their pool with a 2-1 record. Their next match was against DII WVU and a chance to continue to build on their resume for a bid to New Orleans for National 7's. The Barons played tough and kept the score close until a few unlucky errors contributed to WVU tries that put the game out of reach. Similar to last weekend, the Barons were down to 7 players playing the whole match and eventually they ran out of steam. They lost 28-12 to finish 4th place again. Anthony Chipps was named Golden Man of the Match for his competitive play in each match, making tackles and running hard throughout the day.

 

Wheeling 43 FUS 0 Kickoff @ 10:10am 0-1

Wheeling continued in top 7's form from the previous weekend's overall winner in their home 7's tournament. The Barons had a few good sequences when they had the ball but mechanical errors plagued the team as they had several forced mistakes and couldn't sustain their playing style.

FUS 35 Frostburg St. 5 Kickoff @ 12:00 1-1

The Barons managed to turn the page on their first match shortcomings and rolled to an easy 35-7 win over Frostburg St. The Barons settled down and made several plays to off load the ball. Rafe Lewis led the way with 3 tries and 3 conversion kicks. Austin Mass and Vince Prezzia each tacked on a try of their own with Vince converting 2 kicks.

Tries scored: Rafe Lewis (3); Austin Mass (1); Vince Prezzia (1). Kicks converted Rafe Lewis (3); Vince Prezzia (2)

FUS 50 Slippery Rock B/Motley Side 0 Kickoff @ 1:20 2-1

Facing an overmatched a team comprised of several SRU second side players and players from other teams, Franciscan was able to put on a scoring clinic, going up 26-0 at the half. They continued the scoring onslaught with 24 more points in the 2nd half to finish out the game with 8 tries scored. Mike Bohman led the way with 3 tries of his own and several other Barons joined in on the fun. The team was able to make timely passes and played keep away with the ball with Prezzia poaching several balls and taking advantage of holes in the defense. The Barons finished 2-1 in the pool play and would face WVU for 3rd place.

Tries Scored: Bohman (3); Prezzia (2); Lewis (1); Ethan Peterson (1); Mass (1). Kicks converted: Prezzia (4); Lewis (1)

WVU 26 FUS 12 Kickoff @ 3:30 2-2

In the match for 3rd place, FUS went up against host and DII opponent WVU for a shot at 3rd place. In similar fashion to last weekend's tourney at Wheeling, with the team down to 7 players again, the Barons started out strong, playing great defense to stonewall WVU's chances at a try. With WVU maintaining possession of the ball for almost 2 minutes, they could not score quickly as Franciscan played expert defense. WVU finally broke through for a try and a converted kick to make

it 7-0. However, at the reset kick, Rafe Lewis took a pass and outraced the WVU defender to the sidelines and put on a deft move that caused the defender to stumble, leaving Lewis to saunter down the sidelines for a dazzling try. It took all of 30 seconds to knot up the score at 7. As they kept playing fierce defense, WVU managed to wear down the Barons and scored 2 tries before the half was up, leading the Barons by 14. WVU was able to tack one more try on in the 2nd half to up the lead to 19. The boys in green and gold did not give up and put on one of the best sequence of passing and catching towards the end of the match as they advanced the ball with timely passing and Bohman dotted it down with a thundering charge to the try line to give the Barons their last try of the day. While the team was disappointed with the results, they still played tough, down to their last 7 guys. They feel they need to play with a sense of urgency from the start and to remain competitive throughout the match. They are matching up well physically but mentally, they need to focus on their game and minimize the errors that have hurt them at inopportune times.

Tries scored: Lewis (1); Bohman (1)

Up Next
The Barons will rest up for Easter weekend until they take on 2021 Small College National Champions Christendom College at home on April 23rd. The upcoming weekend will see the alumni of Franciscan play the alumni of Christendom as the curtain raiser to the men's 1pm match. Following the match, there will be a post-match social gathering with speaker Scott Hahn in attendance at the Square at 5pm.

Franciscan will then turn their attention to the Allegheny Rugby Union 7's championship to be held at Clarion University on Saturday, April 30th. They will likely be the 2nd seed in the 16-team tournament to see who will win and gain the automatic qualifier and represent the ARU Small Colleges at National 7's in New Orleans for May Madness on Memorial Day Weekend for a chance to win Nationals in 7's.

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