Two weekends ago, Life (2-1) traveled north for its first two games of the season. After a shutout win against West Chester, the Running Eagles dropped a 14-point game to Quinnipiac. When the team returned to Marietta, Ga., coach Ros Chou tailored training to address some deficiencies discovered while on tour. Life put in the hard work and was rewarded with a massive 63-7 win over visiting Army (4-3) today.

“We anticipated a much closer game because of the Quinnipiac match,” said Chou, who was referencing Army’s win over the Bobcats earlier in the fall. “We lost a lot of ball against Quinnipiac, so we have been working diligently on retaining ball in contact, as well as proper assignments for offensive rucking. We also knew Army was an 80-minute team and would be fit.”

Kim Semiglia got the scoring rolling, dotting down the first of Life’s 10 tries, while Madison Ohmann added the first of her seven conversions. Kaitlyn Broughton and Deshel Ferguson scored a brace of tries apiece, while Savannah Austin, Rachel Dorminy, Darian Lovelace, and Nicole Strasko also scored. Whitney Wilson kicked a conversion as well.

“Some of it was getting the combinations right with the new personnel,” Chou said of the offensive output. “We switched up some things in the back line and started seeing what might be some aggressive attacking options.”

Chou praised freshman Wilson, who moved from flyhalf to fullback. She did an excellent job moving the ball to the wings and showed she’s well equipped for the position. Semiglia resumed her spot at flyhalf, setting up next to Cynthia Kelly and Broughton in the centers, and Ferguson and Christina Swift on the wings.

Additionally the backline has added some weapons to its arsenal.

“Some returners have been working on their kicking game for the past year,” Chou said. “I wasn’t as confident in that part of our game, but now seeing all of the work that has happened over the past year, they now have the green light to look for space.”

Kelly did an excellent job executing a tactical kicking game.

Chou indicated that it was a fairly even match in the forwards, and N'Keiah Butler led the way in terms of finding work around the pitch and making good go-forward. The Life defense had made special plans for Army lock Tranelle Patterson, who is a dangerous ballcarrier, as well as All American flyhalf Nicole Heavirland, who is Army’s most effective attacker.

“We retained so much possession that we didn’t get to see Army get into their groove,” Chou said.

Army did score in the 78^th minute, as Lindy Clark dotted down and Heavirland converted.

Despite the big win, Chou indicated that the team isn’t reveling too long in the win. Lindenwood is up next and there is more work to do.

“After the game, there was a lot of attention to improvement,” Chou said. “We got tired in the second half – rucks got messier as we fatigued – so again we have to address how we’re retaining ball and making sure we have the right amount of support to properly do that. We have to work on defense in that we know Lindenwood has a number of threats, and so our multi-phase defense needs to be good.”

Lindenwood heads to Marietta on Oct. 31, while Army will host Norwich next Saturday.