Clarion, Pa. - The Franciscan Barons trekked to Clarion for the Allegheny Rugby Union 7's Championship tournament on Saturday. The Barons were looking to capture the championship and along with it, earning the automatic qualifier for CRC's (Collegiate Rugby Championship) National 7's in New Orleans on Memorial Day Weekend. The team was seeded 3rd out of a team of 12 for the March Madness style, single elimination bracket. Franciscan awaited the winner of MARC (Mid-Atlainc Rugby Club) Small College 7's champion Susquehanna and Oberlein College. Susquehanna won convincingly and would be Franciscan opponent in the quarterfinal round. It was the opportunity Franciscan was looking for as Susquehanna was seen as one of the top teams in the ARU tournament. Susquehanna is not a member of the ARU but because of other ARU teams dropping out, they were invited to play. Susquehanna had already earned their spot in the Small College National's 7's in New Orleans and the Barons had to face them in their first match. The Barons knew coming into the championship tournament that they had to either win the tournament or play well enough to get an at large bid. Here was that chance to show what they could do. The Barons raced out to a 24-0 lead until Susquehanna put up 5 points right be the half. The Barons continued with their strong play and finished with an easy 34-19 victory. They played great defense and capitalized on several turnovers by Susquehanna early in the match. The confidence the players had, showed throughout the match and their nerves were never frayed. Rafe Lewis and Michael Bohman led the team with two tries a piece. Vincent Prezzia dotted down once and newcomer Bill Walsh scored the last try for the Barons. Rafe Lewis knocked in 2 conversions.

The Barons' win moved them to the semifinals were they faced off against another non-ARU team in SUNY Geneseo, an annual top 10 Small college team in 15's. SUNY had a somewhat surprising win of their own against #2 seed Slippery Rock University, who were given an at large bid to New Orleans based off the strength of their "resume" by beating several DII level teams in several tournaments last month. Instead of facing SRU and getting their revenge from losing to them at Franciscan's 7's tournament back in March, they would be playing SUNY. Franciscan started the scoring off by Aidan Gibbons as he collected a pass from Michael Bohman after a turnover by SUNY, and dashed off along the sidelines for the match's first points. With the made conversion, the Barons were up 7-0. SUNY was able to shake off an attempted tackle by Anthony Chipps and score a try of their own and with the made conversion, they tied up the match at 7-all. Chipps, however, had short term memory and quickly made up for the play, breaking a tackle, and scampering for a 50 meter try of his own and making up for his error. With the made conversion, the score was 14-7 at the half. The second half was similar to the first half as both teams had possession of the ball a few times but lost it. Franciscan then tacked on another try after Michael Bohman received a pass from Luke Hall and made a deft move to cut across the field and outraced the last defender to give the Barons a 19-5 lead. SUNY, however, were able to score two tries, the last one with no time left to tie it up at 19. The Barons however, thought they already won because the scoreboard showed that they were winning 21-5 after Bohman's try and they mistakenly assumed that they just needed to keep SUNY from scoring more than 2 tries and that time was on their side. Needless to say, SUNY forced a sudden death period. In sudden death, the first team to score wins. Franciscan lost the toss and had to kickoff. They managed to shut down SUNY and forced a turnover. The Barons had a chance to win but ran out of bounds on the attack. With SUNY deep in their zone, they attempted to move up the field and with the help of an egregious forward pass that went unnoticed somehow, SUNY was able to score on that errant pass. SUNY won 24-19, sending the Barons to the 3rd place match and denying Franciscan a chance at a championship.

Dejected and frustrated with how the match ended, the Barons gents couldn't find the right motivation for their 3rd place match against #1 seed Wabash and played like it. They lost 35-15 in a match to take 4th place. It was a match that seemed to display the Barons dashed hopes as they couldn't quite forget and move on. After a quick try by Wabash, Chipps made a nice sidestepping move and offloaded to Lewis, coming around him, and Lewis darted down the sideline for the try. The kick was missed and then Wabash answered with a try of their own. Then, they quickly dotted down another try from the restart kick, made the conversion and were up 21-5, taking the wind out of the Barons' sails. Chipps, again, received a pass from Lewis, shrugged off two tackle attempts and took off for a long try. The kick conversion was missed and Wabash still had a 21-10 lead at the half. In the second half, Wabash was able to capitalize on a Baron turnover and scored the try and conversion upping their lead by 18. Wabash scored again to bring their score to 35 and the Barons tacked on one last try by Nick Patryn off a great pass by Hall to give the Barons 15 points, the final being 35-15. Despite the loss, Franciscan held their own against two perennial small college programs in Susquehanna and SUNY Geneseo. They soundly defeated a championship team in Susquehanna (who earned a spot in the CRC National 7's for winning their MARC 7's championship tournament) and also were on the way to beating SUNY and making it to the ARU Championship.

Up Next
Franciscan received an at large bid to New Orleans for the CRC National Small College 7's Championship to be held May 28-30th. The Barons know what lies ahead and are confident in their abilities to have a successful run in New Orleans. The Small College bracket and seeding will be out on Thursday, May 5th as Franciscan awaits their next opponent.

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