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York, Pa. - The Horned Toads took second place this past weekend at the 12 team Keystone Cup Tournament. They finished behind Penn State, the current DI National Champs and number one ranked team in the country.
The Toads played three matches on Saturday. In the first match they topped Colgate 15-5, a strong DII team. The Toads completely dominated Colgate and beat them at every phase of the game. This match was a thing of beauty to watch as the Toads played great team rugby, moving the ball down the field with quick passes and winning every ruck and maul.
Their second match was a much anticipated rematch of the EPRU Championship Match against LaSalle. This match was everything everyone expected. It was a very physical match and the Bi-Co was up for the challenge. They wasted no team in letting LaSalle know who the champs were, beating them in every phase of the game. LaSalle showed why they are good team, never backing down and continually coming at the Toads. In the end it was the teamwork of the Toads that lead them to a decisive 17-7 win.
The third match of the day was the match that the Bryn Mawr-Haverford team was looking forward to playing against a team from Penn State. Penn State entered 2 teams in the tournament. Their teams were a mix of A side players and B side players. Penn State's A side is number 1 in the country, their B side is considered the third best team in MARFU behind Navy. The Horned Toads were ready for the challenge.
Many on the Penn State sideline were quite surprised by the play of the Toads. The Toads were not intimidated and made Penn State play. Two breakdowns lead to Penn State scores, the other two scores were a demonstration of why they are number one. The Toads had 2 long breaks that were stopped at the one yard line and about 10 yards out. Both times the Penn State fullback made outstanding plays to prevent the Toads from scoring.
Although the final score was 28-0, the Toads earned the respect of the Penn State team, fans and coaches. The Penn State players commented that the Toads were by far the best team they faced. What impressed them the most was that there was no quit in the Toads. One of the Penn State All-Americans playing in the match commented that she had never played against a team, other than Navy and Stanford, that just kept coming at you.
On Sunday, the tired and weary Toads beat St. Joseph's in their first match 5-0. This set up another match against the other Penn State team. Once again the Toads gave it everything they had. Despite injuries to some of the backs, which forced the Toads to play some of the forwards in the backs and put people in new positions, the Toads hung in there. Once again there was no quit and again they had a long break that was thwarted inside the five meter line. The Toads worked to try to push the ball across the line for a try, but Penn State was just too much. In the end the final score was 36-0.
Overall, BM-H played well and had the respect of everyone. They were the only team in tournament that pushed Penn State. No one else got within 40 yards of scoring against the strong Penn State teams, but the Toads took it to them and made them earn the shutout. Although the Toads lost to Penn State, the matches were a lot closer than scores indicated. The Horned Toads walked away from this weekend feeling good about their performance. It was quite impressive.
The tournament featured teams from, Colgate, College of New Jersey, Drexel, Gettysburg, Kutztown, LaSalle, Penn State, St. Joseph's, Ursinus, and York
For the season, the Toads are now 5-2 and have a very tough match at home next Saturday against Lock Haven. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.
***Release courtesy of head coach Ron Ziegler***
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