By Emily Mulcahey
Contributing Writer
As darkness drew nearer on Saturday night, the lights surrounding the Marra Turf Complex flickered to life. Over 1,000 dedicated fans crowded the sidelines in the chilly air, but all remained unusually quiet in anticipation. The bagpipes blared an old Irish tune, and with the steam of their breath already visible in the air, the St. Bonaventure Men’s Rugby team took the field for one of the biggest games of the season, against a leading competitor: Army.
Most predictions for the game were simple: Army would win by a landslide. The Bonnies, however, would not give in so easily.
“As soon as you see them get off the bus, you realize they’re just college kids. And we’re just college kids.” Coach Clarence Picard said of the Army squad, “You know, they go to a great school, but we can compete with anyone.”
The Bonnies certainly proved Picard’s point. After falling behind to Army scoring first, the Bonnies came back with fire, keeping a neck-and-neck battle for eighty well-fought minutes.
“I wouldn’t say we were intimidated. It was more along the lines of being excited for the challenge to play one of the best teams in the nation,” sophomore prop Conor Robinson said.
This mindset truly showed during the game, even after having to recover from Army obtaining the first try.
“Our problem has traditionally been a slow start.” Picard commented, “I thought, ‘are we going to do this again or are we going to wake up?’ I went to the try zone and talked to the guys, and I could see that they weren’t really phased by it. As soon as we had a good kick off and made the tackle, I was like ‘alright, we’re okay.’”
The Bonnies became a team with heart that drove their home crowd into a frenzy. After each back and forth try was scored, the fans were even more ecstatic, knowing the stakes of the game against this high-ranking team.
“Team chemistry was definitely up, a lot of things went more smoothly compared to the Iona game,” Robinson said.
However, in a last-minute turn of events, with the Bonnies only trailing by one try, Army touched down once again. Nearly out of time, the Bonnies did not recover. The final whistle blew, and after a back and forth game with well-implemented defensive tactics and heart, the Bonnies fell to Army 36-22.
But the team’s outlook cannot be defeated.
“It was a big confidence builder and motivator. We saw that if we play well, we can compete with these guys at the same time, we didn’t win. We don’t want to go patting ourselves on the back because there is still a lot more work to do.” Picard stated.
With plenty more to come in the season and after the display of blood, sweat, and heart shown by the Men’s Rugby Club, the fans can only anticipate the next match. The Bonnies will kick off at 1 PM at Penn State this Saturday.
mulcahek12@bonaventure.edu
