The Barons Rugby program celebrated its 25th anniversary at Franciscan, with 2000 the year the team first played. Around 20-25 alumni attended the alumni dinner on Friday, and they were out in full force for the Homecoming match against WVU. The Barons were itching to put on a performance for the rugby alumni, the fans and their families who attended the weekend festivities. WVU didn't stand a chance as the Barons lead from the first whistle to the last. All told, the Barons put up 88 points and surrendered zero on the scoreboard.

After about 10 minutes of sloppy play by both teams, the Barons finally capitalized on a WVU penalty. Captain Joseph Moleski (Joe Bob) started the scoring spree with a quick tap on the WVU penalty and zig zagged his way through a few defenders to touch the ball down for a try. Christopher Ascough nailed the conversion kick to make it 7-0. A few minutes later, Joe Bob chipped a kick behind the WVU defense and Ascough outraced the defender to dive on the ball and give the Barons another five points. The kick after was wide as the angle from the sideline was a difficult one for Ascough. With the score 12-0, Ascough converted a penalty as the Barons chose to take the easy points and bump the lead up to 15. A few minutes later, Dominic Grecol was able to execute a pick and go from a few meters out and touched it down for another try. Paul Thibault set up the try with his own power running only to get upended near the try line. Ascough once again slotted the kick after and upped the lead to 22. Fintan Ahearn scored his first try of the season with some fast ball movement through the backline as Gus Wright offloaded to Ahearn and Ahearn dove in for the try at the far sideline. Another difficult kick conversion followed and Ascough pushed it wide. The Barons led 27-0 and with no time left on the clock, Tanner Harris took a nifty offload from William Schaifer (Sawyer) and broke a few tackles for a long try and Ascough converted the kick after to make the score 34-0 at the half.

At the start of the second half, Wright collected a turnover from WVU scored a try of his own and Ascough again converted the kick for a 41-0 lead. Joe Bob and Ascough once again executed a chip and chase kick, with Joe Bob's kick perfectly bouncing right into Ascough's hands as he scored his second try of the day. Ascough converted and upped the deficit to 48. Grecol was at it again and scored his second try of the match. Ascough hit the conversion and the lead was at 55-0. Nate Bateman joined in on the scoring and made a nifty play out wide to fake the defender out and dotted down the ball for a try. With Ascough subbed out, Bateman took over kicking duties and converted his own try to give the Barons 62 points. Paul Leerkes made a heads up play and corralled a loose ball and galloped to a 40 meter try and Bateman again converted the kick to make it 69-0. The Barons then executed a nice counter ruck from Luke "Lex" Lang and Abraham Schmiesing took off with the pill and scored the try with Bateman following up on the kick conversion to bring the score to 76-0. Lang then made a dazzling move a few minutes later and scooted in for his first Barons try but Bateman pushed the kick after to the right of the post making the score 81-0. To cap it off, Jacob Leerkes made a great offload to AJ Murray as he punched it in for his first try of the season and with Bateman's conversion kick successful, the final score was 88-0 and the final whistle blew.

The Player of the Match was Dom Grecol with his tenacious running and stellar defense. DAWG of the Match went to Captain Joe Bob as he set the tone of the match with his gritty try to set the pace and his kicking to set up two more tries. Overall, the team played loose and aggressive in their attack and were on point with their passes throughout the match. Afterwards, the alumni kitted up and played a friendly match against various current players to the thrill of fans and families who stuck around to watch the men of yesteryear against the lads of today. The Barons would like to thank WVU for coming up and playing us and giving a hard fought match, regardless of what the score showed. The Barons ruggers also want to give a huge shoutout to the ALUMNI, families, and friends who showed up and massively supported the team on a great rugby day!!

Franciscan will now turn its attention to a big match against #15 John Carroll in Cleveland as they play a conference match with playoff seeding on the docket. Kickoff is slated for 1pm. Fire me up Barons!!

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