After our warm ups and a brief discussion with the referee, we were ready for the match to begin. Our line up was:
1. Yahve, 2. Daniel, 3. Joey, 4. Aly, 5. Calvin, 6. Andrew P., 7. Steven L., 8. Caleb, 9. Lewis, 10. Andrew W., 11. Josue, 12. Edmund, 13. Tristen, 14. Octavio, 15. Eric.
Reserves
16. Jackson, 17. Travis, 18. Jibreel, 19. Andrew M., 20. Ola, 21. Manny, 22. Ethan, 23. Grafton
The match kicked off just a few minutes past the original kick off time of 6:15, and it was from the get go all UT Dallas. With the team applying extreme pressure on the SFA forwards and back line seemed to frustrate SFA to no ends. It seemed to me that with SFA not having a separate coach to help evaluate and prepare the SFA players, they were at a loss on what to do at times. An example of one of those times a coach might have helped in their preparation. UT Dallas kicked for territorial advantage, but the ball rolled into goal, an SFA Wing, picked up the ball and was looking to do something with it. His team mates were yelling at him to ground the ball (for a SFA 22meter drop kick). Instead, he tried to run the ball out of goal, but was tackled by 2 UTD players. Before he fell to ground, he was able to off load a forward pass to one of his team mates, which accounted for the referee blowing his whistle and awarding a scrum to UTD for that forward pass. We went on to score off this scrum, the first half was all UT Dallas, the first half ended with UTD ahead comfortably 47 to 0.
The second half began pretty much like the first half, SFA managed a couple of times to creep into UT Dallas territory, but our steady defense was able to get us out of trouble and counter attack. To begin the 2nd half, we took Josue out and Manny came in. 5 minutes into the second half, our Hooker Daniel Eljuri was awarded a Red Card, in his defense. It wasn't due to foul play or a cheap shot, it was partly the SFA front row not giving the mandatory 3 feet cushion in the scrums and the referee not maintaining that proper distance or managing this aspect of the game. Daniel got so frustrated that he may have done something (I don't know yet, what he did) and was awarded a Red Card. So UT Dallas would have to play with 14 players for the final 35 minutes. In time for the next scrum, we were able to insert Jibreel into the hooker position and life was good now. But Jibreel would only last approx. 15 minutes before attempting to tackle an SFA player and finding his head had been cut and opened with blood flowing from his head, he'd have to be replaced. Another rookie finally getting game time only to be moved to the injured reserve list just as fast as they get into the match.
But in the end, it was all UT Dallas scoring Trys all day/night long. But before I go into the players that scored, I would like to honor 2 players, Daniel Eljuri, Andrew Whiteis playing in their last home league match. It has been an honor to coach and watch those 2 grow up, play rugby before our (mine and Bear's) eyes. I know the club and coaches wish Andrew and Daniel all the best of luck as they enter the working world and hopefully continue their rugby careers with a Men's club.
Scoring this evening was name (number of Try's scored)
Edmund (5), Eric (2), Aly, Calvin, Andrew Palet, Steven Larson, Caleb, Andrew Whiteis, Josue, Jackson
Lewis scored a Try and converted 14 out of 17 Trys, the final score UT Dallas 96, SFA 0.
UT Dallas completed a fall league season undefeated with a perfect 6 wins and no losses. While this is great, this means we only have 1 league match next spring. Currently we have a friendly on the schedule and that league match giving us 2 matches and about 3 weeks of down time before the state playoffs begin. I will be trying to secure a match or two during those open weekends just to keep up in tune with everything before going into those playoffs.
As always, I will keep you posted and our spring schedule will be posted during the winter break.