STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - The Franciscan Barons Rugby squad took the pitch at home on Saturday to play Case Western Reserve for their first conference match. For Case Western, this was their first game of the fall and arrived with a short bench to play the match. From the opening salvo to the final whistle, it was all Barons. Actually, it was all Case Western in the opening stanza of the first 3 minutes. The Barons received the kickoff and went through a few phases only to throw a forward pass that halted their progress. Case was able to take advantage of an uncontested scrum due to their novice forwards, a few playing their first match ever and were able to get the ball out and run a few phases of their own. A high tackle penalty on the Barons gave Case an opportunity to kick for points and they capitalized on it giving them a 0-3 lead. The Barons boys woke up from their early slumber and as Noah Schlueter collected a kick from Case and set up the first phase. The pass went out to Aidan Gibbons, and he hit Andrew Normandin with a pass to send him on his way for a 50 meter try as he outran the opposition. Gibbons slotted the kick after to give the Barons a 7-3 lead that they never gave back. A minute later, Anthony Chipps took a pass from Vincent Prezzia and made a few nice wiggle moves and managed to break through the gain line. He offloaded to Prezzia for the easy try to give the Barons a 14-3 lead after Gibbons made the point after attempt. The Barons fell into a lull, as the first half went on as they seemed to be trying to score 15 tries in 10 minutes and went away from the game plan, and never really settled in their pattern or run their plays, which can often lead to errant passes and drops. When they did run their set pieces, they were able to control the game more, which happened when Nick Patryn scored on an 8 man pick and go from the scrum. Gibbons missed the conversion kick, and the score was 19-3. A few minutes later, the Barons showed great ball handling as they were able to cycle the ball through several players with nifty off loads the last being Normandin's pass to Sebastian Bise as he outraced the defense to score his first career try for the Barons. Gibbons was able to convert the kick and up the score to 26-3. The Barons kept it rolling as they continued to score in bunches with offloads and breaking the gain line. Vince Prezzia was able to set up an easy try for Normandin as he scored his second try of the day. Gibbons made the conversion, and the score was 33-3 with a few minutes left to play in the half. Franciscan was able to tack on one more score as Noah Schlueter corralled an up and under kick from Prezzia near the 5-meter line and touched it down in the corner. Gibbons missed the difficult kick from the sideline angle and the half ended with the Barons up 38-3.

For the second half, the Barons started to put their reserves in to give them some playing experience with the lopsided score. It took a spell for the youngsters to settle down and get the feel of the game, but they were willing to step up and show what they've learned. Ethan Peterson started off the scoring in the 2nd half with a try off of a penalty tap. He fended effectively during the 30-meter run for the try. Gibbons was unable to punch it through for the conversion and the Barons' lead sat at 43-3. After an errant penalty kick for touch, the Barons were able to reverse field as Normandin took a pass from Gibbons and broke free to the outside before offloading an over the shoulder pass to Schlueter, who cut it back to midfield and offloaded to Gibbons and then Gibbons gave it to Prezzia who offloaded it to a charging Tanner Harris as Harris finished the play off with a try. Gibbons again had to kick the conversion from a difficult angle and missed it, keeping the score at 48-3. The Barons kept on coming as they capitalized on a penalty by Case and Prezzia offloaded a pass to Nick Patryn as he did a good job of supporting Prezzia. Gibbons failed to connect the conversion leaving the score at 53-3. Gibbons added a try of his own as he deftly weaved through the Case defense and dotted down the try. Of course, he would convert his own try and upped the score to 60-3. Towards the end of the match, the highlight play of the game went to rookie Victor Kranz. He took an offload pass from JP Treece and fended off a few Case defenders and rambled up the field for 60 meters before offloading the ball to rookie Paul Callahan as Callahan was able to gather the ball and dive in for the last Baron try of the day. Gibbons pushed his kick to the left and the Barons settled on 65 points for the day. Case was able to salvage their day as they bookended the scoring with a late try at the end of the game to give themselves some points. The final at the whistle was 65-10.

Case Western played valiantly with only 16 players and a few of them playing for their first time. Franciscan was happy with the result as they were able to empty the bench and get a lot of their young players quality playing time. Chipps led the way in the first half with several runs to establish the attack and with Prezzia and Gibbons teaming up to send offloads wide, it made for a successful day. Normandin continued his tough style of playing with several hard charging runs and defensive tackles. Several young players saw playing time with Kranz making a few nice runs and Nate Czach stepping into a tight 5 role to gain experience. John Paul Treece had a few solid plays at wing. Callahan had his first try by following Kranz to support him. Joe Vasquez hit the rucks and had a few timely tackles in his first action of the season. Martin Ricart saw his first action as well.

\Nick Patryn was named Dawg of the Game with his steady, heads-up play. Gibbons was named Golden Man of the Match with his constant offloading and running into contact. Overall, the team had plenty of good plays and plenty of errors that they can work on in training next week. Next up for the Barons is an away match at Geneva, as they continue to play conference matches. kickoff is at 11am Saturday. Go the Barons!!

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