University of Notre Dame defeated Bowling Green 29-7.
This game was played as the Parseghian Cup match Friday night at Notre Dame raising money for the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Fund.
Notre Dame scored early off a little bit of broken play. A UND pass went behind some players and Bowling Green’s defense over-pursued. Fighting Irish prop Tom Bohman snagged the ball and burst up the middle for about 25 meters before offloading to scrumhalf Owen Portelli, who had worked hard to get there in support, and Portelli finished it off.
Flyhalf Ryan Putka slotted the conversion and Notre Dame led 7-0 after less than four minutes. Bowling Green spent a good portion of the next 12 minutes inside the Notre Dame 22. They ran the forwards hard up the middle and eventually lock James Demetropolis was shoved over the line, but the referee ruled he was held up. So, no try for the Falcons.
Notre Dame was able to clear, and then a holding-on penalty was forced by Putka, setting up a Fighting Irish lineout inside the Bowling Green 22. Notre Dame inched closer and then after another penalty, tapped quickly with loosehead prop Chase Pierce powering over.
Both sides had chances after that but the contest at the breakdown made the game into very much a back-and-forth affair. Finally with less than five minutes left in the first half Putka snaked through a gap and raced 50 meters, selling a couple of sidesteps on the way. He was caught, but the tackle was high and the freshman flyhalf put the penalty over the bar to make it 15-0 Notre Dame.
Notre Dame pressed their advantage early in the second half, Pressure from the Irish forced a penalty. They took the lineout, and a powerful carry from No. 8 Patrick McKenzie got them close to the tryline. Hooker Matt Williams picked up and took it strong to the line to score Notre Dame’s third try of the evening.
Putka converted and Notre Dame led 22-0.
Bowling Green responded right after that. They took a lineout off a penalty and then worked the phases. Finally No. 8 Phil Tracey powered to the line. He was tackled as he went over, but the tackle was high and it ended up being a penalty try. Now the score was 22-7.
Scoring slowed down after that. Bowling Green was still plagued by penalties at bad times. Notre Dame put them under the kosh with some good, hard running and nice offloads down the sideline. But being over-eager in trying to get the turnover the Falcons were penalized, giving UND another attacking lineout. The forwards bashed it close and then off the ruck Bohman made it a try for every front-rower. Putka converted to make it 29-7.
About 22 minutes remained in the game but there was no more scoring. Still it was a very good result for the Fighting Irish. Bohman was a force all day, making several big breaks and working hard overall. Putka had an influence on every point scored for Notre Dame.
For Bohman, this was his third game of rugby, ever, and he certainly made a statement.
