ST. LOUIS, MO. -- On the first warm Saturday of spring, Principia rugby traveled to Saint Louis to participate in the 63rd annual Gateway Ruggerfest tournament along with 59 other teams.
Principia's first match was against the University of Iowa. Iowa scored first in the 7th minute after utilizing a penalty to pin Principia against their goal line and then moving the ball laterally off of rucks until finding a hole. However, Principia responded just after the ensuing kickoff when 8-man
Paul Olsen broke through the defensive line off of a quick ruck around midfield and passed in a tackle to fly half
Tom Bisbee who scored. Olsen then made the conversion kick. Principia drove Iowa back inside their 22 meter line late in the half by passing the ball straight from the fly half to the wing, but a penalty led to a turnover. The score at the end of the first half was 7-5. However, Iowa stepped up the tempo in the second half and scored three tries using constant overloads to move the ball down the field. One try came off of a box kick which landed just behind Principia's backs, who were unable to recover the ball. Iowa won 24-7.
Principia's second game was against the Chicago based Lincoln Park. Aggressive play allowed Lincoln Park to get on the board in the 7th minute by keeping ball possession and driving Principia back phase after phase. Just one minute later Principia tied the score after winger
Matt Orlando returned a kick to Chicago's 10 meters up the field. The ball came loose out of the ruck, and flanker
Graham Thatcher was able to scoop it up and pass to locke
Max Russell who had an easy run for the try. After this try, the game belonged to Lincoln Park. Uneven refereeing, along with strong play by Lincoln Park, brought the final score to 31-7.
Principia earned a win in their final game of the day 33-5 against annual Saint Louis men's team Sunday Morning, with four different players scoring five tries. Wing
Tyler Marunde struck first after receiving the ball on an overload but ran out the back of the in-goal due to light field markings for the tournament. However, just two minutes later he got another chance and this time placed the ball down. Center
Jake Milner scored the next two tries giving the Chickens a 17-0 lead at the half. Near the beginning of the second half Sunday Morning was able to put one in on Principia after a 5 meter scrum. Olsen then scored his second try of the day off of a pass by Thatcher who broke through Sunday Morning's defense. The two repeated the same play just minutes later but couldn't complete the try. However, near the end of the game Thatcher was finally able to run the ball into in-goal for a try.
Paul Olsen was 6-7 on conversion kicks for the day.
Principia next plays at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday against Missouri S&T at Principia's Saint Louis campus.
