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Boston, Mass. – The Horned Toads bounced back from a devastating 15-10 loss to Marist on Saturday afternoon to blank Canisius 10-0 in the third-place game of the DIII National Championships hosted by Stonehill College.
Semi-Final Game vs. Marist Recap:
After a ten and half hour bus ride to Boston and getting to the hotel at 12:45 am the night before, the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Rugby team was a little sluggish at the start of their semi-final match against Marist. However the Toads struck first as freshman wing Nat Armentrout took a pass from senior captain and outside center Kendra Smythe and raced 30 meters for a score to give the Toads an early 5-0 lead.
The Toads held the lead for the first twenty five minutes of the first half, but Marist, off a ruck and overload, broke threw the BM-H defense to tie the score at 5-5.
You could see that Toads were a little tired and were trying to get their game together, but Marist came right back with about five minutes left in the half to score to take a 10-5 lead at halftime.
Regrouping at halftime and feeding off a strong support of about 100 fans cheering the Toads on, a different BM-H team came out in second half. The Toads came firing out with a determination reminiscent of their match in the EPRU Championship against LaSalle. They dominated the rucks and mauls and were on the attack.
Ten minutes into the second half the Toads were able to break senior flanker Tania Melo free for a score to tie the match at 10-10.
The Horned Toads were relentless with their attack and defense. Marist was not able to get beyond their 22 meter for almost the entire second half. Four times the Toads were able to push the ball over the try line, but were not able to touch it down for the score. Two of the times were so close that it took the ref some time to rule. With about 1 minute left the Toads had a penalty and elected to kick for goal, but the kick missed wide left. So it was time for overtime. This meant two-ten minute halves.
The first half of overtime the Toads picked up where they left off and kept the pressure on Marist. Marist never crossed mid field. Once again the Toads had two opportunities where they crossed the try line but couldn't get in down for the try. They dominated Marist in every part of the game.
The second half of overtime you could see the fatigue starting to effect the Horned Toads as players began cramping. But to their credit they continued to battle and refused to quit. Play was now at mid field and Marist started winning some rucks, but the Toads battled back.
With 15 seconds left in the second overtime, the Marist outside center made a break. She broke a tackle and raced 30 meters and scored to give Marist the 15-10 win.
It was a heartbreaking loss, but the Horned Toads played with the heart of a champion and showed tremendous determination and never quit. The fans showed their appreciation by cheering and clapping for the Toads as they came off the pitch. It was an emotional time for the Toads and they appreciated this well deserved show of support and appreciation of the effort they put forth in a great match to watch.
Consolation Match vs. Canisius Recap:
In the consolation match, the Toads went against Canisius. After 100 minutes of rugby the day before, the Bi-Co team was tired and sore. They were determined not to let that affect them.
Behind the leadership of captains Smythe and Dawne Ballard , the Toads came out and showed Canisius that they meant business. Right from the start they controlled the scrums, rucks and mauls. The Toads received strong forward play from their tight five of Abbey Higgins , Jill Walker , Lisa "Julie" Grandner , Ballard and Celia Turner . The play of flankers Tania Melo and Kira Montagno prevented Canisius from gaining any ground off of loose balls. Scrumhalf Micaela "Mic" Dybbro kept the Canisius scrumhalf from getting any clean ball and was all over her like flies on honey. Her play prevented Canisius from mounting any serious attacks.
You could see the Bi-Co team was fighting through fatigue throughout the first half. This team never gave up and it showed as they methodically worked the ball down field taking small gains at a time. After a penalty, the inside center made a break of 30 meters to get ball inside the Canisius 22 meter line. With 15 minutes into the first half Smythe made a picture perfect fully extended dive over the try line to touch it down to put the Toads up 5-0. The half ended with the Toads holding that lead.
The second half despite the fatigue the Toads actually started pushing Canisius back and spent the second half entirely in the Canisius end of the pitch. Canisius only crossed mid field twice the entire second half. The first time fullback Leah Kane-Risman made a great open field tackle to stop the attack.
Finally 28 minutes into the second half, senior flyhalf Becky "Juice" Harmon made a great break, broke three tackles and raced 15 meters for a try. This gave the Toads a 10-0 lead.
Canisius to their credit would not quit. After Dybbro went off briefly with a bloody nose, the Toads had to make some adjustments until she could come back in. Kane-Risman went to scrumhalf and wing Aley Thompson went to fullback. Canisius thought they could exploit it by kicking to Thompson, but Thompson was up for the challenge and negated every attempt by Canisius to gain field position and returned the kicks back into Canisius territory. At one point she made a great return of 25 meters and made a perfect pass to wing Diana Ekman who raced another 15 meters and just missed going in for the score as the Canisius wing was just barely able to push Ekman out of bounds.
Canisius tried one last attempt to get back into the match, but were thwarted by the Toads. The final straw came when during a Canisius scrum, hooker Grandner was able to get her foot on the ball at the put in and something never seen in rugby, was able to stabilize the ball while she battled the with the Canisius hooker who desperately tried to hook the ball back. With a surge from the pack, Grandner was able to muscle the ball away from the Canisus hooker and secure the ball for the Toads.
Canisius never threatened again. The whistle blew and the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Horned Toads were victorious and ended their season with a third place finish at the National Championship.
For the season the Horned Toads finished with an 8-1 record. They were the EPRU Champions and Regional Champion and will be moving up to Division II next fall.
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