Life Wins Key D1 Elite Game on the Road
Life Wins Key D1 Elite Game on the Road
Life University is now 2-0 in Women's D1 Elite after defeating Central Washington in Ellensburg, Wash. Saturday.
The Running Eagles were the fitter team, said CWU Head Coach Matthew Ramirez and they exposed the fact that Central has not been in training for especially long. All of this was spelled out in the fact that it was only 10-5 at halftime. And in fact Central Washington surged through and were threatening in the first few minutes of the second half. But a holding-on penalty killed that and Life was able to kick to touch to get out of trouble, win that lineout and then bust a 35-meter run up the middle.
Two more big runs and Life was on the doorstep and after some effort got it over. That made it 17-5, and after that Life's speed on the outside and their snappy passing saw them score their fourth with less than 30 minutes to go.
Central had the run of play for the next 10 minutes or so but once again Life's red zone defense was solid. Three tries from Life in the final 16 minutes finished it off 41-5.
"I love the team spirit during our long travel trips," said Life Head Coach Ryszard Chadwick. "It's amazing how the team support each other, even when there are troubles in the road. Our freshmen players have been doing great. They've blended in perfectly and added real depth to our team."
Chadwick has been running the Life players hard in the opening weeks and it has paid off. But they also worked hard tactically.
"We changed and installed some things this week that we needed to change from Penn State, so it was good to see the growth and change within a week."
Chadwick said the score was somewhat flattering to Life as Central Washington challenged them throughout, and it is true that the Life tries were not the result of major structural problems. As Ramirez said, fitness played a factor.
Next up for Life is a week off and then Lindenwood, which defeated Dartmouth in a D1 Elite-vs-NIRA showdown this week.
Meanwhile Central Washington is at BYU, a team that is new to D1 Elite and will be playing their first game of the season.
Also in D1 Elite, Grand Canyon won't begin their season until October 28 at BYU. Penn State has been playing some NIRA teams, and lost to Queens University Charlotte 26-20 this past weekend. The Nittany Lions take on Brown next week and Army the week after that. Penn State doesn't return to all-D1-Elite action until Novermber 12 vs Lindenwood at the campus of Ohio State.
