Photo by The Bona Venture’s Sydney Best
The St. Bonaventure slogan, “Fill the hill,” was in full effect on Friday as several families and students lined the hill beside Marra Athletic Field on the St. Bonaventure campus as the St. Bonaventure rugby team took on Navy.
Both St. Bonaventure and Navy were ranked in the top-25 USA Rugby preseason rankings. Navy came in at No. 5 while St. Bonaventure was ranked No. 18, setting up an early season showdown with possible postseason implications.
The Bonnies were able to break through the stingy Navy defense early first half, jumping out to an early 17-3 lead behind the consistent play of Jon “Shifty” Rodriguez. Rodriguez blew through a gap in the Navy defense, late in the second quarter, to extend their lead to 15.
“Being in front of a big home crowd was electric for us,” said Rodriguez, in reference to the first half. “To be up with fourteen points against a team like Navy, who is a top five team in the country, was amazing for us.”
Navy was able to close the gap to nine before the half ended. The Bonnies went into the locker room up 17-8 and with all the momentum. The Bonnie’s head coach, Andrew Tui Osborne, was elated with his teams play in the first half.
“We had a brilliant first half,” said Tui. “We stuck to our game plan and that allowed us to put up points”
The Navy defense flipped the script on the Bonnies in the second half rattling off 26 straight points to grab a commanding 34-17 lead. Eventually the Bonnies were able to push across their lone score of the second half, resulting in a final score of 34-24 in favor of Navy.
“We came out and went off script in the second half,” Osborne said, breaking down the second half. “We would have scored more if we had stuck to our game plan but we mentally dipped.”
Rodriguez was in full agreement with his coach’s analysis of the second half.
“We kind of got away from our game plan and didn’t stay focused with what we were doing,” said Rodriguez. “We tried to pick it up towards the end but wasn’t on our side, which was just unfortunate.”
In the closing seconds of the game, when the game was ultimately out of reach for the Bonnies, fans could hear Rodriguez reinforcing the idea of “composure” to his teammates.
Osborne commented on Rodriguez’s words of wisdom to his teammates saying, “Shifty is in a position where he needs to lead and make sure everyone on task and staying emotionally intelligent for the game, which he did very well today.”
For a team that finished ranked 14th in the nation last spring, Osborne believes there is only room for them to grow into a better team.
“Navy put us under pressure in the second half and we broke down,” said Osborne. “It is all fixable, and we have a big week of training ahead to fix the problems.”
In the most recent USA Rugby polls, the Bonnies jumped three spots to number 15, where they will stay for their next match against number-18-ranked Notre Dame College. That match will take place on Sept. 21st at Marra Athletic Field.
Osborne wants to make diamonds out of his players, the pressure of playing against the top teams in the nation will do just that, and Osborne believes his team is up for the challenge.
By John Pullano, Sports Editor
pullanjj18@bonaventure.edu
