Match Report

Pigs vs. Banshees 33 – 17, 7 – 21

October 4, 2003

On a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon the Pigs took a break from league action to battle old rivals the East Side Banshees in Eagan. In typical fashion, we started poorly, and a poorly fielded kick through by the Banshees resulted in an early try against us and a 0 – 7 deficit. Soon after, some continued poor play by the Pigs led to a penalty within kicking distance that was converted, as the deficit rose to 0 – 10. At that point, however, our speed and support play began to show through and after several near misses, JR Burgess broke through the Banshees defense and passed off to Grant Dietrich who slipped in for the score. Billy Bridgeman converted and the deficit was cut to 7 – 10. Mike Lundberg took the ensuing kickoff and evaded a number of Banshess tacklers before finally being brought down, as he went to ground, however, he offloaded to Mike “Muddy” Hankee who sprinted through the rest of the defense to score in the center. Bridgeman again converted and the half ended with a 14 – 10 scoreline.

The second half saw more inspired play from the Pigs, as the lead was increased on a nice backline move that ended with Dietrich finding Brett “Pebbles” Carter on the wing who touched down in the corner. The difficult conversion was no good, and the score stood at 19 – 10. After a couple of silly Pigs penalties, the Banshees then pulled back a converted try to cut the lead to 19 – 17. At that point, however, the Pigs took over the game with consistent runs through the defense and beautiful support play that led to two more tries. The first was a nice individual effort by Lundberg, as he broke a number of tackles and made his way in to the try zone. Brigeman’s conversion was good for a 26 – 17 advantage. The final try came from some beautiful support, as replacement lock Jason Naber found himself alone out on the left wing. After a long run the defense converged, but he was able to pass off to wing Steve King, who then found scrum half Jason “Ponch” Rombalski, who finally passed off to lock Ben “Kramer” Hanson who rumbled in for the score. Bridgeman’s conversion was again good, and the game ended with a 33 – 17 score and a continuation of the Pigs winning streak.

Lineup:
1.Troy Midboe 2.Matt Sonnek 3.Luke Utting 4.Ike Muringai (Jason Naber) 5.Ben Hanson 6.Joe Huberty (Mark Lynch) 7.Mike Lundberg 8.Mike Hankee (captain) 9.Jason Rombalski 10.Bill Bridgeman 11.Brett Carter 12.Pio Piliami (Jon Sydow) 13.JR Burgess 14.Steve King (John Germscheid) 15.Grant Deitrich

Scoring:
Tries: Dietrich, Hankee, Carter, Lundberg, Hanson
Conversions: Bridgeman (4/5)

B-Side
The B-side game saw both sides feature a lot of experience. After giving up a first half try, the Bombers came back early in the second half to tie the score at 7. Continued Banshee pressure led to 2 quick tries, however, and the match ended with a score of 7 – 21. A good time was had by all involved, however, and many thanks to all the Old Boys who came out this week and all season to support the club.