The Ohio University Men’s Rugby team have done what everyone thought was impossible; from Miami University, to the University of Cincinnati, the boys brought home wins that no one expected them to get. That’s right, the underdogs — excuse me, the underCATS — have made it to the Division 1-AA Mid American Conference (MAC) playoffs for the first time since moving up to Division 1 in 2012.
The Ohio University Men’s Rugby team have gone through several trials and tribulations before they got to this point in their career. In 2012, the Ohio University Men’s Rugby team was suspended for the entire 2013-2014 season due to an alumni game. This suspension included fall season for their fifteens teams and spring season for their sevens teams. While club sports thought that the suspension was right and just, the rugby team had a different idea. This interruption to their love of the game was not taken lightly. During that time, players left but some also stuck it out, and in the 2014-2015 season it was game on. Adding several newcomers to the team made it a shaky season for the Bobcats and they failed to win more than one game in the fall. This left their record at 1-4 with their only win against the University of Louisville.
Thankfully, the boys pulled it together this year with the help of their coach, Willie Griffes, and their team captain, Corey Gut. This young team practices 5 days a week and their hard work finally showed in their games. The regular season record stands at 4-0-1 with the tie being against the University of Louisville.
On Friday, November 5th, 2015, the Ohio University Bobcats travelled to Cincinnati, Ohio for their chance at the American Collegiate Rugby Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. There's only one team left in the way of their road to the championship, Bowling Green State University. The only difference between Ohio University and Bowling Green is the fact that BGSU has lost a game. OU has not.
And the results are in.
Unfortunately, the Ohio University Men's Rugby team lost to Bowling Green State University in the first round with a score of 65-19.
The BGSU boys started out strong with a score of 43-7 in the first half of the game with the only try for the Bobcats being from the sophomore center, Hayden George. Junior fullback, Killan Mulkern, successfully kicked a conversion to bring the score up to 7. Unfortunately, in the last fifteen minutes of the half, Bowling Green was able to score 5 tries and 3 conversions after a forward pass by the Bobcats resulted in a turnover. After halftime, the OU Bobcats made a strong comeback defensively and made it hard for the BG Falcons to score their last 22 points to win the game. Corey Gut, in his last year as an Ohio University rugby player, scored a try in the second half along with Alex Vihtelic, a sophomore flyhalf, trying desperately to close the growing point gap. The Bobcats just couldn't make a significant enough comeback to take down the Falcons and in the end, their hopes for a championship were gone.
Team Captain Corey Gut, whom the team refers to as Lenny, spoke about their devastating loss on Saturday and their third place game on Sunday. "[Bowling Green] simply came out with more intensity than we did. Early on, we had a forward pass call that would have given us a try and the lead that killed our momentum. Although it was a tough loss for us, I was proud of the way we kept fighting until the end. Our match against Dayton was played [as] more [of] our style of rugby. We had confidence coming in despite 5 injured starters. A lot of guys stepped up when we needed them most. I believe our forwards scored all [of] the tries off of line breaks from the backs so it was truly a team effort. Taking 3rd in the MAC is a huge accomplishment for us after being suspended just two seasons ago."
The Ohio Bobcats watched the singular rugby match that Bowling Green lost in their regular season before heading to Cincinnati, trying to find out a way to take this team down in the Mid American Conference. Coach Griffes had a few thoughts about their game plan going in and how they ended up executing it. "We wanted to focus on what got us to the playoffs, our fitness, fundamentals and playing territory. With daylight savings time we had a short week of practice. Going into the match we felt confident. [Bowling Green] did some unexpected overloads to us that we did not make adjustments [for] until it was too late." Willie Griffes also mentioned how a big majority of the team will return next year, which he believes will give them a good chance in the MAC playoffs again. He then goes on to talk about their third place game, which the Bobcats ended up winning 22-17, against the University of Dayton: "Overall, [I'm very] proud of [the] team for fighting back from a disappointing result on Saturday. It showed the growth of the team and the future has never looked better for the team with [the] majority all set to return."
Congrats Ohio University Men's Rugby for your amazing fall season and your exceptional run in the MAC playoffs. Here's to next years Division 1-AA MAC playoff championship (fingers-crossed.)
Photo Credits: Ohio University Men's Rugby Facebook
