A week after just edging Ohio State in dramatic fashion, Bowling Green hosted Davenport in another non conference game, and after the first 60 minutes had to wonder why.

Expecting a tight, hard-nosed affair, the Falcons instead stared down the business end of a shutout that ballooned to 37-0 with 14 minutes to go. In those final 14, Bowling Green did superbly to score four tries and make it a game, 37-26, but the total comeback wasn’t to be.

"Beat up from last week? Maybe," pondered BGSU Director of Rugby Roger Mazzarella. "Still basking in the glory of a last second victory over Ohio State the previous week? Possibly. But had the Davenport match lasted five more minutes, I think we would have been talking about a different final result."

"We are young and that showed in the mistakes we made," said Bowling Green Head Coach Tony Mazzarella of a team that started nine underclassmen. “And maybe we didn't look so hot for three quarters of the game. But they say you haven't lost until you give up and that is something the guys certainly did not do."

Meanwhile Davenport Head Coach James Wood said the Panthers are starting to hear his message.

“We wanted the guys to show a little more patience,” said Wood. “The guys don’t have to always go for the home run ball; they needed to understand that they can run through a few phases. And they did that Saturday.”

After a humbling loss to Penn State, Davenport went back to the basics, focusing on ball retention and executing basic skills well. After going through a 2013-2014 league season in which they didn’t win a game until the DIA playoffs (where they beat Army 28-24), Davenport seemed a little unsure how to win - at least that’s what Wood thought.

“I told them that you can’t expect anything at this level,” he explained to Goff Rugby Report. “You have to take the win. No one’s going to give you anything. No one’s going to roll over for you. To get a win, you have to earn it.”

They did that, and using a 40-minute burst in the middle of the game, torched Bowling Green for a series of tries - five of which came when BGSU was down a man due to a yellow card.

It seemed that sort of game, because Bowling Green almost returned the favor with four tries in 14 minutes.

"Momentum is a funny fire sometimes," said Roger Mazzarella. "You've got to keep feeding that fire constantly, because when you let that fire get down to just embers it is almost impossible to get blazing hot again. Davenport may have thought they had the game in hand just about the same time our guys decided 'well enough of this garbage'. Five more minutes - would have really been interesting to see the score after that." 

For the Falcons, freshman hooker Phil Bryant scored two quick tries to get his team going. For the Panthers, flanker Conor Schilling was immense, making yardage with the ball and, more importantly, blanketing the field as a defensive presence.

For Schilling, the extra time with the ball in hand was a bonus, but one borne out of the same patient approach that Wood espoused.

“When we’re not trying to score a try in one phase, we used our support more,” said Schilling. “I was lucky to get a few runs, but it all comes from communication. We were talking to each other, and listening, and because of that we were making better choices.”

The result, then, was a wakeup call for Bowling Green, which probably needed it going into MAC league play, and a much-needed confidence boost for Davenport, which was coming off two straight losses.

Up next for BGSU is Ball State in a MAC league game. For Davenport, it’s a little time off and then Arkansas State, followed by Wheeling Jesuit and Lindenwood in one of the toughest falls for any college team this year.