The Seattle Seawolves had two tries in the final eight minutes to defeat the Houston SaberCats 27-14 on Sunday, March 10. The Seawolves record improves to 4-2 and is in second place, while the Houston SaberCats fall to 1-4, a record that is not indicative of how they have played.
Match Recap
The Seawolves scored quickly off a Brock Staller penalty kick to take a 3-0 lead. A lineout steal by the SaberCats led to a Josua Vici break and an Osea Kolinisau try to take a 5-3 lead.
Houston’s lead was then extended by a Sam Windsor penalty kick to 8-3, however, another attempt later was wide.
Although the Seawolves had more possession, the SaberCats exploited errors for a lead at the break.
The Seawolves mauled their way into the lead after an early second-half try by Jeremy Lenaerts and a conversion by Staller for a 10-8 lead. Soon after, an offsides call against the Seawolves gave the SaberCats another penalty kick and an 11-10 lead. That also changes quickly as Staller picked the team back in a 13-11 lead.
The Seawolves could not extend the lead after an offsides infraction with a Staller miss at goal. That was not the case when Seattle was penalized as the SaberCats reclaimed a 14-13 lead.
The Seawolves then had an extended attacked that had Oli Kilifi held up in-goal. The team took a quick tap from a penalty and Sequoyah Burke-Combs dove in for a try in the corner to take a 20-14 lead with eight minutes to go. Three minutes later, Eric Duechle raced in for another Seawolves try, and after the conversion, the lead was 27-14.
That’s the way it would end, with the Seawolves celebrating and the SaberCats wishing they could have kept up their performance for a full eighty minutes.
Next week the Seawolves travel to play Austin Elite Rugby on Saturday, March 16 at 4:00 pm PT (7 pm ET). The SaberCats host NOLA Gold on March 16 at 7 pm CT (8 pm ET).
Squads with Player Articles Links & Match Preview
Seattle Seawolves: 1 Kellen Gordon 2 Dan Trierweiler 3 Tim Metcher 4 Apisai Naikatini 5 Brad Tucker 6 Cam Polson 7 Eric Duechle 8 Riekert Hattingh 9 JP Smith 10 Ben Cima 11 Sequoyah Burke-Combs 12 Shalom Suniula 13 William Rasileka 14 Brock Staller 15 Peter Tiberio 16 Stephan Coetzee 17 Olive Kilifi 18 John Hayden 19 Jérémy Lenaerts 20 Aladdin Schirmer 21 George Barton 22 Dion Crowder 23 Scott Dean
Houston SaberCats: 1 Jamie Dever 2 Pat O’Toole 3 Charlie Connolly 4 Robert Meeson 5 Matt Trouville (C) 6 Luke Beauchamp 7 Cecil Garber 8 Alejandro Nieto 9 Connor Murphy 10 Sam Windsor 11 Malacchi Esdale 12 Conor Mills 13 Osea Kolinisau 14 Josua Vici 15 Zach Pangelinan 16 Amro Gouda 17 Jake Turnbull 18 Matt Almeida 19 Chris Parker 20 Diego Magno 21 Ayron Schramm 22 Chris Saint 23 Max Tacket + Head Coach Justin Fitzpatrick
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