It looked as maybe the game would become a track meet after the Crusaders scored a try on their first possession of the match via a wide back line move finished off by a long run from Center Owen Hundt, playing in his first match as a Crusader, converted by Nick Viviani.

The Blaze were not discouraged and came back running over 20 phases, helped by some poor discipline from the home side to tie the match at 7, and followed that with a quick penalty kick to take a 10-7 lead with 20 minutes played.

The Crusaders continued to make breaks and looked dangerous with ball in hand, but the final passes or offloads went to the deck more often than not, likely a symptom of multiple newcomers in the backline and forwards trying to learn a new offensive system.

The Crusaders traded a penalty with a converted try from the Blaze off a penalty play to find themselves under some pressure 30 minutes into the match. From this point on the Crusaders tightened up their defense and were able to get more continuity on offense, as they started chipping away at the Blaze lead and the pressure started to wear on them, as much as the hot weather wore down both sides.

Joe Brown added the first of his 3 tries on the day off a nicely worked group of phases following a long break from Rookie Flanker Cullen Barelka. Right before halftime Captain and Eight Man Spencer Duncan made a heads up play off a lineout in which the Blaze chose to not engage a maul to score untouched and to give the Crusaders a 20-17 lead going into half.

Give the Blaze credit, they never backed down and played hard for all 80 minutes of the match, but the Crusaders defense bent but didn’t break for the rest of the match, bailed out a few times by a dominant scrum, and some solid breakdown work from Jake Fuchs and Cory “Poach Master” Graham.

Joe Brown was on fire in the second half and scored 2 more tries with hard and elusive running, to put the match out of reach. The Crusaders took home a bonus point victory and look to keep their undefeated streak going this weekend when Pittsburgh comes to town. D3 kicks off at 1pm, with D2 to follow, both matches will be at that Polo Grounds.

Hope to see you there!

Crusaders D2 Roster vs Blaze

1.) Frank Vitale – St. Ignatius

2. ) Mark Viviani- Mentor HS Rugby(via Lake Catholic), BGSU Rugby

3.) Joe Brown – St. Ignatius, Kent State Rugby

4.) Jake Fuchs – Black Pirate Rugby

5.) Terry Kilbane – St Eds, BGSU

6.) Preston Lowden – Kent State Rugby

7.) Cullen Barelka* – Medina, NDC Rugby

8.) Spencer Duncan (C) – NDC Rugby

9.) Cory Graham – NDC Rugby

10.) Nick Viviani – Mentor HS, BGSU Rugby

11.) Ty Kamcycz – Strongsville, Kent State Rugby

12.) Charlie Jewers* – Manchester, England

13.) Owen Hundt – St Eds, Boston Free Jacks MLR

14.) Alex Dine – Hudson Rugby

15.) Dan Heistercamp – St. Eds, Xavier Rugby

16.) John Strausshoffer- St. Ignatius, Kent State Rugby

17.) Brad Sekas – Ashland Rugby

18.) Nick Musarra – Mayfield Rugby, BGSU

19.) Ryan Sands – NDC Rugby

20.) Chris Reed – Hudson Rugby

21.) Steve Fritsch – Parma Rugby, BGSU

22.) Evan “Flapp” Bradshaw – NDC Rugby

Injured