Christendom, Va. -  The Barons opened the Fall 2023 season with a friendly preseason match at longtime rival, Christendom College (CC), who were ranked #8 in Small College NCR preseason rankings. After a grueling week of camp, the boys were itching to have a punch up against the perennially ranked foe. Arriving about an hour before kickoff after a 4-hour drive, the Barons were in a hurry to get kitted up, stretch and warm up and get ready for the match.

The erratic energy soon followed at the kickoff as nerves were certainly tingling. In a very entertaining back and forth match, the hot weather and a big crowd made for a tale of two different halves for both teams. The Barons were able to strike first as freshman, Jacob Leerkes, playing his first rugby match ever, powered his way forward, carrying several CC players, for his very first career try on a pick and go to settle things down for the men in green. The kick after did not convert as it was from a difficult angle on the near sidelines. CC answered back quickly with a try of their own and missed their kick after as well, knotting the score at 5 each. Captain Vincent Prezzia was able to slot in a penalty kick to give the Barons a 3-point lead, 8-5. CC again battled back and scored quickly to the weakside and made their conversion to give them an 8-12 lead, which wouldn't stand for long as Prezzia was able to capitalize on a CC turnover and score a quick side-stepping try and with the kick after converted, Franciscan once again jumped back to the lead at 15-12. Again, the lead evaporated quickly as CC answered with a try of their own and took back the lead 15-17. The Barons pulled ahead again, when newcomer Tanner Harris offloaded to Noah Schlueter, who made a few shifty moves and danced into the try zone. A missed conversion saw the Barons with a 20-17 lead in the waning minutes of the first half. Before time was up, CC did what they had been doing the whole first half and scored another try to re-take the lead 20-22, ending the half with some momentum. The first half was full of errors, which was to be expected in the teams first course of action this fall but there were plenty of scintillating plays by both teams to impose their will but neither team backed down. The second half was a different story for both teams where in the first half, the Barons were able to capitalize on a turnover and score first, and this time, it was Franciscan that turned the ball over after the kickoff. CC was able to score a try and up their lead to 20-27 after a missed kick conversion.

Unlike the first half though, Franciscan did not score to keep the pace and instead gave up two more tries as CC started to pull away from the Barons and with the missed conversions, the score stood at 20-37. Both teams had been putting in the young players throughout the second half to give them playing experience that is necessary to develop depth for later in the fall season. The boys from Franciscan, however, did not lay down and quit, as Brendan Lacey took another offload from Harris and dotted down a try in the corner to give the Barons a spark. Aidan Gibbons converted a difficult kick from the sidelines to bring the score to 27-37 CC leading. The score was aided by two backline players, with several hard runs from senior newcomer, Andrew Normandin, who was tasked with providing stability in the backline after John Thibault left with a pulled hamstring early in the 2nd half. Freshman JohnPaul Kilmer came in at center and immediately showed his moxie as he made a few nifty runs himself. With time running out, the Barons again hit paydirt as Kilmer made a deft move to pass to Normandin to move the defenders off of him and Kilmer kept it and sauntered in for the easy try. With the converted kick, the score was 34-37 with about 5 minutes left in the match. The Barons and CC were at this point, exhausted and running on fumes, as CC was just trying to stop the Barons momentum and keeping them from scoring, Franciscan was able to run a few phases but with fatigue setting in, an errant, high pass and catch resulted in a Baron turnover and gave CC a chance to run out the clock. They came close to scoring again but the Barons defense prevailed as they hit the player, attempting to dive in for a score and caused the attacker to lose the ball. The shrilly whistle blew loudly and the match was over. Both teams left it all out on the pitch and the teams came away with positive results for their first match. Of course, there's a lot of work to be done by both teams, and the Barons were able to play a lot of their newcomers/freshmen, which will have an impact on the team as they look to build depth for a long and trying season. The Barons know they were close to beating the #8 ranked team in the country and while it's always nice to have a "moral victory", a win was the goal.

Now, Franciscan knows what it'll take to climb into the National limelight as they continue to improve as a team.

Mike "Carl" Mays was named Golden Man of the Match with his ferocious runs and leading the forwards. JP Kilmer was named Dawg of the Game for replacing Thibault and helping to keep the backline moving without missing a beat. Freshmen Jacob Leerkes, JP Kilmer, Seth Jillson, James Welsh, and Mike Kellner, along with newcomers, Andrew Normandin, Tanner Harris, Sebastian Bise, and Victor Kranz, all played for their first time in the green and gold jersey. The Barons will turn their attention to their upcoming opponent in the always challenging Xavier University this Saturday at Franciscan. Kickoff is slated to be at 1pm. The last time these two met was in the play-in qualifier in the Fall 2022 season, which was won by the Barons 7-0. This is another preseason, friendly match, which does not count against their conference record.

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