This past weekend Baylor hosted an always tough University of Dallas team in some very cold weather. The high hovered around freezing and the wind was out of the north at 10+ mph. A special thanks to UD and the Referee for making it down in these conditions. This match was a very important one for post season standings. With a win Baylor would firm up a home seed for the Feb. 25th Quarterfinal Match against SMU.

(Match Report from Blake Rodgers)

First Half-

From the kick off to the final whistle the Baylor defense was outstanding. Baylor won all of our scrums and stole 2 of UD’s coupled with winning all of our lineouts and stealing a few of UD’s.

About 10 minutes into the game BU stole a lineout and Baylor 8 man Blake Rodgers took off running and got down to the 5 meter line, Baylor recycled the ball quickly, the backs ran hands and and Center Josh Terndrup committed the defender and offloaded to Winger Cody Riles who scored in the corner (unconverted by Flanker Gavin Goetchius).

About the 20 minute mark there was a penalty awarded to BU for hands in the ruck against UD on their 10 meter line. Blake Rodgers quick tapped and spun the ball quickly to Inside Center Jon Hosket, who passed to Terndrup, Josh carried 3 UD players into the tryzone with him scoring a great try (converted by Gavin).

Halftime Score: Baylor 12 – UD 0

Second Half-

About 5 minutes into the second half, UD was offside. Baylor was awarded a penalty and while the ref was making the mark Jon Hosket took the ball, from the 50, quick tapped, and ran through 3 UD players then outsprinted the fullback into the try zone (unconverted by Gavin).

25 mintues into the second half, off good recycled ball Flyhalf Jeff Kriesel broke through the line offloaded to hHsket, who drew the UD wing and offloaded to Darrius Streets for his first try ever, ZULU WARRIOR (Gavin converted from very close to the sideline into a stiff wind).

10 minutes later, we had a won lineout go off the top and hands through the backline as hosket broke through to score the 5th and final try (converted by Gavin).

-Baylor defense was Tough allowing UD no offense, the only time UD would gain ground was off of pick and go’s from the ruck, only to be driven back most of the time. Backline allowed no breaks, and stole many balls.

First time this season we broke at the end of the game with a resounding BAYLOR HURTS!

Baylor 36 – University of Dallas 0

Men of the Match:

Overall Man of the match goes to Chip Camp for running over 3 UD players and having great scrums and crushing tackles.

Also worth a mention were:

Jon Hosket for an outstanding offensive display. If he wasnt scoring tries, he was assisting them and had many powerful runs.

Defensive player goes to Nate Sloan, every tackle Nate had, saw the opposing player coming off of his feet when contact was made.

It seems that Baylor is beginning to find their form and hopefully just in time as a very tough SMU will be traveling to Waco to play for a spot in the TRU Championship.

First XV Lineup:

1. Sebastinan Price
2. Jack Noe (replaced by D.J. Spence at half)
3. Chip Camp
4. Rhett Reeves (replaced by Rob Giersbach at half)
5. Mik Valdez
6. Nate Sloan
7. Gavin Goetchis
8. Blake Rodgers (captain)
9. Ryan Phillips
10. Jeff Kriesel (co-captain)
11. Cody Riles (replaced by Darrius Streets at 55 minutes)
12. Jon Hosket
13. Josh Terndrup
14. Josh Key (replaced in first half by Jordan Dubisson)
15. Brent Jakubec

Garrett and Nicole Ehler just welcomed a new addition to their family.  Warren Edward Ehler came into this world on Thursday, February 16th.  He weighed in at 7 lbs and 6 ozs. and was 19 1/2 inches long.  Congratulations to both of you and it looks like we will have another standout Baylor Prop in about 18 years !!!

Referee Match Report from www.strr.net

The first half was a close game with SFA 7 and Baylor 5. The second half started out in the best of ways. 10 min in to the second half SFA had a player sinbin due to a repeat infringements (law 10-G). 20 min in the second half another SFA player committed the same offence (law 10-G). At this time I red carded the SFA player and went to the center of the goal to award a penalty try to Baylor. At this time Baylor player and a SFA player had a altercation. The game was called with 20 minutes still remaining in regulation time.

As a result of the early stoppage Baylor was awarded the 10-7 victory. An ugly and forgettable game. Baylor is currently sitting in second place behind Angelo State in their division. A win on Saturday vs. a tough University of Dallas would allow Baylor to host a quarterfinal match versus SMU on February 25th. A loss would force Baylor to go on the road and play Texas State University in the quarterfinal matchups.

Come out and support BU as they go for another playoff run.

Baylor met the University of North Texas on Saturday and was looking to get back on the winning track. The guys have been working very hard on their fitness and they would need every ounce of it on this day. The weather was great it was in the mid 60s and sunny with a fairly brisk breeze blowing out of the North. Baylor would receive the ball to begin with the wind at their back and going uphill. Baylor came out running hard but it was clear from the beginning that UNT was up to the challenge and worked hard to stymie any attack Baylor could throw at it. The first half was a back and forth affair with Baylor attacking and UNT counterattacking. Neither team could get the upperhand. With about 10 mins to go in the first half a UNT player high tacked flanker Josh Terndup and Jon Hosket retaliated by pushing the guilty party. Immediately the UNT player retaliated. This led to a 10 minute sin bin for Jon Hosket and a 20 minute double yellow (which was awarded in lieu of a red just so the ‘kids could play on’ a slight change to the IRB rules, but fair enough). In the next 5 mins Baylor seemed to gain the upperhand and was knocking on the door and eventually lock Miklos Valdez finally barrelled over for his first ever try. Baylor missed the conversion but went into half with a 5 – 0 lead.

The second half began with the UNT player still in the sin bin and Baylor having the 1 man advantage. From here they were looking to capitalize early. They attacked well from the opening kickoff and were awarded with a penalty kick that flanker Gavin Goetchius ably slotted to extend the lead to 8 – 0. The remainder of the first half saw Baylor forgetting to run straight and UNT putting in some solid defense. With about 15 minutes to go UNT was awarded a penalty 5 mins from the goal line. UNT choose to tap and go and Gavin Goetchius put in a crushing tackle to stop the attack. But Baylor infringed again and this led to another UNT 5 meter penalty. Again UNT tapped but Baylor held strong and stopped UNT on the 1 meter line. UNT spun the ball wide but Baylor was offsides which led to another 5 meter penalty. This time UNT decided to to tap and spin the ball to their winger. The pass was about a meter forward and Baylor quickly let the referee know. The referee decided that since Baylor was back chatting and trying to ‘call the game’ that the forward pass did not matter and the try was awarded. Instantly Coach Zachary Oliphant had to question this dramatic change to the IRB rules and after about a 10 minute discussion the play was overturned and UNT was awarded a penalty 5 meters out under the post (I am still not sure how that was determined but it was better than a try). The UNT 10 tapped again and again was nailed by Gavin Goetchius. This time Baylor turned over the UNT ball and booted it deep down the field finally repelling about 10 minutes of pressure. In the 72nd minute UNT was awarded a kickable penalty and closed the gap to 5 points 8 – 3. The last 8 mins of the match was a back and forth affair as Baylor clung on to a 5 point lead. Finally the whistle blew and Baylor was victorious. A tough hard fought win and hats off to UNT for playing some very tough rugby.

Baylor Starting XV:

1 Sebastian Price
2 Douglas Spence (Jack Noe @ 40)
3 Chip Camp
4 Nate Sloan
5 Miklos Valdez
6 Josh Terndup
7 Gavin Goetchius
8 Blake Rodgers (Captain)
9 Anthony Torres
10 Sean Reid
11 Cody Riles
12 Jon Hosket
13 Brent Jukubec
14 Josh Keys (Jordan Dubuisson @ 40)
15 Jeff Kreisel

Man of the Match: Flanker Gavin Goetchius for his stellar defense.

In the second side match UNT fielded their entire 1st side vs an A/B mix for Baylor.  This was another tough game, but Baylor came up short 8 – 0.  It was a good game for Baylor B to gain some experience.

Next week Baylor travels to SFA to try to improve to 2 – 1 on the season.