Steubenville, Ohio - The Barons Ruggers took to the road this past weekend to visit Geneva College. A fellow former member of the Three Rivers Rugby Conference, the teams were on a hiatus, last playing in the 3RRC playoffs in the fall of 2019. Franciscan made the hour trek for an early day kickoff at 11 am. With a shorter bench than they've had in the last few weeks due to injuries and illness, the Barons traveled with about 25 guys.

Needless to say, it was an onslaught from the get-go. Franciscan put five on the board two minutes into the match with Luke Hall barreling in on a pick and go to give the Barons the lead. Aidan Gibbons missed the conversion kick, leaving the score at 5-nil. On the ensuing kickoff from Geneva, Andrew Normandin gather the loose ball and sprinted past the oncoming defenders for a 60 meter try and with Gibbons' made conversion, they were quickly up 12-0. A few minutes later, Vincent Prezzia sent a pass to John Paul Kilmer, who faked a pass and the defender bit on it and he was off for a 30 meter try and with a Gibbons' kick conversion successful, upped the score to 19-0. After a lull in play due to Geneva finally settling down to string together a few phases, the Barons went through their own phase play and had a few misfires as well as miscues. No scoring was to be had for either team for about 10 minutes. With Geneva backed up in their end, the Barons forced a turnover by their backline and Brendan Lacey pounced on the loose egg ball for the 5 points. Gibbons converted the kick and the Barons were up 26-0. Prezzia added to the score with a tap go off of a penalty tap and dotted down the try for five points. The missed conversion by Gibbons gave the Barons a 31-0 lead with about 10 minutes to go in the half. Normandin added to the lead with an off-load pass from Gibbons and touched it down after outracing the defenders and Gibbons converted the kick to bring the lead to 38-0. Gibbons again factored into a try, with his second assist of the day, and with an offload to Lacey, who scored his second try of the day and Gibbons made his conversion kick for a 45-0 lead. With zero time left in the half, the Barons wanted to continue to string phases and not just kick it out of bounds to end the half. The goal was not to run up points but to practice being in that situation for upcoming matches and being in that mode of thinking to end a half with a try. They were successful as newcomer John Bateman fed a nice outlet pass to Jeremy Lemaignen, and he was able to jaunt down the sidelines for a 25 meter try to give the Barons a 50-0 halftime lead. Several players were put in at the half to get more playing time with a few newcomers left in to get into game playing shape. John Paul Leatherby was welcomed back in his first game action since last fall. Newcomer Abraham Schmiesing came in at lock and looked solid in his debut. Bateman continued his stellar play as the #15 but was moved to the #10 to give other guys in the backline experience in playing other positions.

The Barons continued to roll in the second half with their crisp passing and offloading and movement of the ball. Gibbons started things off with a try along the right sideline as Normandin offloaded a nice pass to set Gibbons up. Gibbons converted the kick to make the score 57-0. Lacey again took an offload from Prezzia and broke free to touch it down and Gibbons' conversion increased the lead to 64-0. Nick Patryn joined in on the scoring as he made a rugby play and stripped the ball from a Geneva attacker and was able to take it in for a try. Gibbons connected on the conversion and upped the score to 71-0. Leatherby scored his first try of the season, taking an offload from Prezzia and powering his way in for five. Gibbons made the kick after and the score was 78-0. Prezzia scored his second try of the match with an offload from Schmiesing and a Gibbons' missed kick made the score 83-0. Bateman set up his second assist of the match by giving a nice pass to Noah Schlueter and Schlueter was able to shake a few tackles and outrun the defense for a try. Gibbons made the kick after and the score was now 90-0. Prezzia set up his 4th assist to Victor Kranz as Kranz took an offload and zig zagged his way to his second try of the season. Kranz continues to show his development as a newcomer that's never played rugby before with his energy. Gibbons slotted in the kick after to give the Barons a 97-0 lead. With little time left and Franciscan threatening to score, Geneva committed a penalty near their own try line and Leatherby smartly tapped and went to touch it down for his second try of the match. Gibbons punched the kick through for the final score of 104-0.

While the score is an unfortunate mark of the match, Geneva played valiantly with a young team that is still learning and improving by the week. They played hard until the end of the match. For Franciscan, it was a nice opportunity to get new players some playing time as a few new guys joined the team recently. With several players injured over the last few weeks, it provided the team with an opportunity to improve their depth as the season continues to move along. Next up is a home match vs Cal U of PA at Franciscan on Saturday September 30th at 11am. Franciscan would like to thank Geneva for hosting us and giving us a good physical match.

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