After barely escaping Davenport, Life University hosts Lindenwood in their second of four Mid-South DIA games.

For Head Coach Tui Osborne, the lessons from Saturday are pretty straightforward.

“We weren’t playing our game plan,” said the former 7s Eagle. “Guys were getting off the page. Early on we had too many guys trying to do too much at the breakdown instead of just leaving it and getting out and playing defense. We just needed guys to get out there ready to tackle.”

It’s one of the paradoxes of the game - turnover ball is primo attacking ball, but if you think only turnover, you take your defense out of position. Osborne had confidence in his team’s ability to defend, and he should. In the second half, when the Life players adjusted and were more patient, they held Davenport to a single penalty goal.

“At halftime we needed to turn it around,” said Osborne’s, whose Running Eagles were behind 22-19 at the time. “They put their heads down and got to work. I was impressed with that. I told them, when we keep the ball, we score, and if we just play the pattern on defense, we’ll get those turnovers.”

The result was not astounding - just three penalty goals in the second half - but it was enough.

It was a wakeup call for Life after so many comfortable victories. They are in the Mid-South now, where games are always close and no one backs down, ever. Lindenwood, won’t be a picnic, either.

“These are the types of games we need to improve on and get to the next one; we’re definitely back at the drawing board for the next game,” said the coach.

Notes: Blane McIlroy was one of the heroes for Life as his goalkicking was outstanding, and he hit a difficult clutch kick right at the end of the game for the win. But the forwards as a unit are starting to make inroads, as well.

Arkansas State is no longer in the Mid-South, but Life plays them anyway, and Davenport has already, and won. 

We’re not kidding about the Mid-South being a close competition. In the spring of 2014, seven out of the 12 conference games were decided by a try or less. This year, the first game of the season was decided by three points. 

Mid-South Conference Schedule

Feb 28 Davenport 25 Life 28

March 7 Lindenwood at Life

March 14 Davenport at Lindenwood

March 21 Life at Lindenwood

March 28 Life at Davenport

April 11 Lindenwood at Davenport