St. Bonaventure Late Surge Cements Win Against Delaware

October 30, 2016

St. Bonaventure Late Surge Cements Win Against Delaware

Logos: Delaware and St. Bonaventure Rugby

Doug Coil

The University of Delaware hosted St. Bonaventure in a Rugby East match on Saturday October 29, 2016 at Frazier Field in Newark, Delaware. The Blue Hens and the Bonnies battled during the entire match and St. Bonaventure emerged with a 39-24 win.

St. Bonaventure truck first two minutes into the match after a penalty on Delaware for a dangerous tackle. Christian Artuso slotted a penalty kick to give the Bonnies a 3-0 lead.

Delaware had to execute player position changes, as Adrian Reyes came in for John Hand as a blood substitute after a cut needed attention. Reyes went to scrum half and Abram to fullback and Jimenez to wing. This flexibility of player positions would be seen with substitutions later in the match.

After an extended period of good defense by both sides, the Bonnies poached a ball at the breakdown and after five phases Christian Artuso went in for the try. He then converted the kick and it was 10-0 after 16 minutes.

Delaware then went on the attack going through multiple phases to inside the Bonnies 22 meters. The attack was thwarted by a loose ball and the Bonnies wing Chaz Schwenk picked up the ball and eluded a tackler before racing the down the sidelines before centering the ball for an easy conversion by Artuso. Twenty two minutes into the match it was 17-0.

On the restart, St. Bonaventure took the ball near the try line and Delaware’s John McCurdy was sent to the bin for a late hit. The Bonnies quickly went over the line, but the ball was held up. Shortly after, the bal was spun wide right andTed Gorman was held up into touch prior to the line. After a Blue Hens lineout 5 meters in defense, the Bonnies stole the ball and Pat McCormack went in for the try. Artuso converted and it was 24-0.

The defenses then took over before Delaware started their scoring in the 37th minute with a try by Matt Ramierez and a Tom Abram conversion. The restart then went directly into touch and from a scrum at midfield, Delaware attacked again.This sustained attack lasted about 7 minutes after time had expired and culminated in a second Matt Ramierez try. At halftime the score was 24-12 in favor of the Bonnies.

There was a pattern emerging where when given a choice of having a lineout or scrum that the Bonnies would choose a lineout and Delaware elected scrums. St. Bonaventure would win the majority of lineouts on the day, but for a stretch during the first half, they lost the ball to throws not being straight and went to scrums for a period of time.

Penalties were also impacting both sides. They were mainly breakdown infractions, off sides with a few dangerous tackles.

During the second half, Delaware continued their late first half momentum and narrowed the score to 24-17 after a Nick Lintner try from close range. The Bonnies answered back as they moved the ball inside the Delaware 22 meters and Christian Artuso slotted a drop goal to increase the Bonnies lead to 27-17.

Delaware raced right back as Matt Ramierez found a gap about midfield and scampered in for his third try. With the Tom Abram conversion, the score was 27-24. That would be as close as it would get, as St. Bonnaventure stole the restart and attacked deep into Delaware territory. Jesus Robles fought off a tackler and went in for a try. The conversion was wide and with 21 minutes to play, it was 32-24.

The Bonnies would score one more try at the 71st minute, as Christian Artuso executed a cross kick to the wing and Ted Gorman had a try. Artuso made the conversion for a 39-24 lead. That score would hold up for the win.

St. Bonaventure Man of the Match was clearly flyhalf Christian Artuso. He was a leader on the pitch and he accounted for 22 of the 39 points scored by the Bonnies. Delaware Man of the Match was Matt Ramierez with a try hat trick on the day.

With the win, St. Bonaventure record is 3-4 in Rugby East and 3-5 overall. Next Saturday they conclude their Rugby East season with a key match away against Iona at 1pm. St. Bonaventure’s young team has been improving and hopes to even their League season with a win.

Delaware is still searching for it’s first win of the season. They also have a young team. Coach Murray has been making numerous lineup changes during the season providing valuable experience to his squad. On Saturday the team plays Wheeling Jesuit at home before ending it’s League season away on November 12th at West Virginia.

Coach Comments

Tui Osborne: “I think that toward the end we did better, but penalties really killed us and that’s something that has killed us throughout the season. Defensively our effort was better, but we still did not make our one on one tackles. That we need to fix before we play Iona.

Delaware had a good team, had some good runners and they exploited us in some areas of the game. The guys pulled it off in the end. I’m proud of their effort to come back. It’s a good effort by the team.”

Struan Murray: “Ultimately it was a game lost in the first half. Can’t expect to give an opponent a 24 point lead and win the game. The frustrating part is the tries that they scored in the first half were from our mistakes. Missed tackles in their 22 that allow them to go 90 meters to score. Not communicating at the ruck and letting them score untouched from 20 meters out. It’s tough to recover from that.

The comeback was very solid. Just played simple, accurate rugby. Matt Ramirez, Matt Hess, Adam Desch were leading that effort and you could see a momentum shift. Unfortunately, as happens with a team that isn’t used to winning, when we got back to 27-24 we lost focus, got overexcited and gave away a try directly from a kickoff. You have to give Bonnies credit for outlasting us. That try was a killer and then they closed the game out.

At some point we have to learn to maintain our consistency for 80 minutes. We have to learn to play to the referee whether we agree or not. We have to take advantage of our chances. We gave away 3 tries and missed scoring 2 ourselves. Coaching has to be better because the players are working really hard so we’ll work to improve the coaching and teaching and hopefully we can finish off the season strong.”

University of Delaware: 1 Zephir Lambert 2 Jared Wilkins 3 Matt Hess (cap) 4 Joost Elling 5 Graham Lovell 6 Henry Carr 7 Joe Osinubi 8 Adam Desch 9 Tom Abram 10 Jake Davis 11 MJ Stovell 12 John McCurdy (cap) 13 Matt Ramierez 14 John Hand 15 Nick Jimenez 16 Nick Lintner 17 Stefan Losten 18 Will Baker 19 Dylan Duffy 20 Hunter Hastings 21 Kevin Coiley 22 Adrian Reyes 23 Jake Galiani Head Coach Struan Murray

St. Bonaventure University: 1 Luis Carpio (cap) 2 Kyle Ciquera 3 Casey Mascaro 4 Yohendy Martinez 5 Alfonso De Falco 6 Matt Williams 7 Pat McCormack 8 Francisco Herenu 9 Eamonn Matthews 10 Christian Artuso 11 Ted Gorman 12 Ryan McGovern 13 Jaret Williamson 14 Chaz Schwenk 15Matt Bergstol 16 John LaDuca 17 North Westall 8 Greg Delaney 19 Brian Roth 20 Kevon Bolt 21 Tyler Flynn 22 Jesus Robles 23 Tommy Anderson Head Coach Tui Osborne

Coach Interviews

Tui Osborne, St. Bonaventure University Men’s Rugby Head Coach