Wild Finish as Adrian Ties and Arkansas State
Wild Finish as Adrian Ties and Arkansas State
Adrian held Arkansas State to a 17-17 tie Friday night in a non-conference DIA matchup.
For Adrian, ranked #21 among DIA teams by GRR, this was a big result against the #9-ranked Arkansas State. It was a defensive-minded match, especially early, and the Bulldogs were battling to get out of their half for a good portion of the first half. With the RedWolves putting pressure on Adrian the intensity ramped up further and further. A-State came close to scoring a few times, including a kickable penalty that drifted wide.
Midway through the first half Arkansas State made its way into the Adrian half and just stayed there. for about 15 minutes. Led by an aggressive back row of Jerred Welt, Jayden Ramsey, and captain Apenisa "Junior" Sailo the Adrian defense held.
Finally with about two minutes left in the half, Adrian lock Brody Dries was sinbinned for tackling a player without the ball. A-State took the lineout, were stopped, but illegally, and on the second lineout-and-drive, got the ball over with hooker Tiaan Ingram touching it down. That try made it 5-0 with time almost up in the first half. And Adrian answered right off the restart. A knock-on by the Red Wolves set up an attacking lineout for Adrian, and the Bulldogs brought off-wing Mychal Andrews into the middle of the backline. He broke through and sent a perfect pass to fullback Benjamin Speight, who stepped away from a diving tackler to score.
That tied it up and the half ended with the teams deadlocked 5-5.
Once again Arkansas State nudged ahead up just a few minutes into the second half. A seemingly innocuous weakside move from inside the Red Wolves' half set wing Matthew Hickey on his horse. His pass inside to scrumhalf Ned Madden in support resulted capped off a 75-meter jaunt for a try. Warrick Day hit the conversion and Arkansas State led 12-5.
Both teams had scoring chances after that but the defenses were solid.
A kick exchange resulted in an attacking lineout for A-State. They lost that lineout, however, only for Adrian to be penalized for an illegal clearout. This time the Red Wolves won the lineout, and off the back of the maul flanker Grant Day popped out and headed for the corner. Try Arkansas State and a 17-5 lead.
As the game entered its final moments, the Bulldogs got a big play from their captain. Sailo jumped up to catch a chip kick, and while all the A-State players were charging ahead, he turned and took off the other way. Faced with two defenders, Sailo booted a kick ahead and chase on. All Day could do was run back, gather the ball, and carry it into his team's in-goal to touch it down.
A brilliant piece of rugby from Sailo set up a five-meter scrum for his side. With Sailo moving to lock flanker Ramsey took over the No. 8 role and while he was just barely driven into touch on the eightman pick, he was tackled high. Arkansas State's defense was excellent, and they held Adrian out. But things got even wilder. A-State got a lineout five meters from their tryline, and won it, but they had to spin the ball around inside their in-goal. Stuck back near the dead-ball line, all reserve back Liam McGregor could do was try to run as hard as he could to get out of trouble. He just made it past his team's goalline, but as the pass from the ensuing ruck wasn't secured, Adrian scrumhalf Jack Stephens dove in to touch the ball down.
Try Adrian. Conversion missed; 17-10 Arkansas State with maybe a couple of minutes left.
Now the Red Wolves needed to run the clock out, but a penalty at midfield gave Adrian one more chance. Back and forth went the ball and Welt was set free on the wing and he took off to the corner. Luke Cullingworth, who has just missed a conversion close to the middle of the field, now had a kick from the touchline. Of course he put it over. Adrian received the restart and kicked to touch to end the game. Adrian had pulled off an improbable comeback tie.
"I am happy with the culture of the team and how the guys from last year, especially the seniors, have bought into the program to overcome so much adversity," said Adrian Head Coach Chris Hathaway, referring to how Zac MIzell's move to Penn State prompted Hathaway's move from the women's team to the men's team, and a speedy search for the women's new coach. "The guys have taken on the coaching change pretty well. The leadership group have taken a lot onto their shoulders to ensure the team standards carry over from last year. It does help that I was fortunate to build strong relationships with the guys last year as the assistant coach for both rugby programs here at Adrian. We are all happy for Zac Mizell and wish him the best of luck at Penn State."
As for the team itself, "the returning players have done a great job of welcoming in their new teammates into the Bulldog brotherhood," added Hathaway. "They believe in each other and are developing into greater people for it."
Hathaway said he'd like to see more consistent play by his team—seems right since they scored 12 of their 17 points in the final five minutes of the game.
"The lads have moments of brilliance when playing but sometimes have big lull moments too," said Hathaway. "The more consistent we become, the stronger we will play together; being able to trust the guy next to them to do their job.
While players such as Speight, Cullingworth, and lock Andres Drab made big plays, No. 8 Junior Sailo was a star.
"Junior has been with the program from the start and has been a big hand in helping his team develop as rugby players," said Hathaway. "The guys look up to him and rightfully so, as he knows the game well."
