photo by Jordan Chaffee
Shane Kalna awaits the handoff from Isaac Kullgren as he is brought down by a Grove City defender.
photo by Jordan Chaffee
Jacob Charles goes down with the ball during the Point Park Rugby Club’s loss to Grove City College on Saturday, Sept. 6.
On the first cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in September, the Point Park University Rugby Club lost their season opener to Grove City College 26-10.
Point Park was to open their season at home against Grove City, as reported last week, but after a number of players failed to register with USA Rugby for insurance purposes before the league deadline, they were not able to host the match. The team traveled to Grove City for the match, but acted as the home team.
Point Park faced an experienced Grove City team with a deep roster. From the start, both teams had the firstgame jitters and excitement that comes with the start of a fresh season.
Richie Carver’s try gave Point Park an early 5-0 lead with the match’s first points less than 10 minutes into the game. Alden Roth then missed the conversion kick.
“I was really excited, man. I’ve never scored and I’ve been playing for three years. I was pumped,” Carver said.
Less than five minutes later, Grove City marched down to the opposite end of the field to tie the match and with a successful conversion kick, pulled ahead 7-5. They would hold on to the lead for the remainder of the game.
At the midpoint of the first half, Grove City scored another try but missed the conversion kick. Their lead was widened to 12-5.
The rest of the first half saw no scoring and aggressive back-and-forth rugby. Both teams came close to scoring but failed to do so. Grove City came within a few yards of adding another score but turned the ball over in front of the goal line. Going into halftime, the game was up for grabs with Point Park receiving to begin the second half.
“It’s 0-0 now. Fresh start boys,” Carver told the team at halftime as multiple fresh subs entered the game.
The light drizzle that hovered over the field for the duration of the first half turned into a downpour at the beginning of the second half. The rain made the ball harder to grip as Point Park dropped multiple passes in the second half.
Seventeen minutes into the half, Andrew Stojan scored for Point Park to trim the Grove City lead. Another failed conversion kick left the score at 12-10. With 15 minutes left in the game, Point Park was less than five yards from taking the lead back when a penalty caused the team to turn the ball over.
Less than seven minutes later Grove City scored and added the conversion kick to take a 19-10 lead and put the game just out of reach for Point Park. They would add another try and conversion kick in the closing seconds to put the final score at 26-10.
Grove City’s Jordan Herder was in on almost every one of their scores. He said that he was impressed with Point Park’s performance and that they have improved a lot since last year.
“They’re very athletic. That’s something that I think they lacked last year. They had a lot of big guys who were quick and very well conditioned,” Herder said.
“The first half we were putting it all out there and the second half the fire just died down. The rain hit us a little bit,” Roth said. “I was still very impressed considering the little practice that we had.”
“I think everybody came ready to play. We need to keep up the intensity for the entire 80 minutes,” Jake Como said.
Of the 15 Point Park starters, 14 were returning players. The only new player was junior transfer student Colby Barrett. He was selected as “man of the match” by his teammates for his hard work and aggressive play on the field.
“It means a lot. Everybody saw the hard work that I did. It’s all about hard work. I just went out there and tried to do my job the best that I possibly could,” Barrett said. “Playing with the guys after only being here for two weeks has been a lot of fun.”
Point Park will be on the road next week as they take face Geneva College on September 13.
“At the end of the day, I think we’re a better team overall. We just had some minor mistakes that cost us,” Barrett said.
