October 11, 2008
On a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon, Saint Paul took the field against an old rival in league play for the first time in several years. This season Metroplis is fielding a D-3 squad, who had started strong this season with just one loss coming into this match. But the Pigs came in with an unblemished 4-0 league record, and wanted to keep the streak alive.
The first half started pretty evenly, as a breakaway try by Grant Dietrich for the Pigs was answered by a Metropolis penalty and a 5-3 score. As the first half wore on, however, the Pigs gained more and more possession and consistently won rucks and mauls to retain the ball and move closer to a 2nd try. It finally came after a long period of sustained pressure inside the opposing 22, when Zach Fjelstad took a quick pass off a ruck and dove in for the try. Conversion was good – 12-3 for Saint Paul. Soon after the Pigs were on the score sheet again, as Jason Naber made a long break down the sideline followed by a no-look pass to Ryan Backman in support who centered the try, which was convereted for a 19-3 lead going into halftime.
The second half started with more of the same, as the Pigs camped out in the Metro 22, and finally the breakthrough came as Naber ran right through the opposing scrum half to touch down for the score. He then converted his own try for a 26-3 lead. A defensive miscue then allowed a long breakaway and a Metropolis try to cut the advantage to 26-8. The Pigs stormed right back though, and minutes after narrowly missing out on a try, Scott Colby was able to power in after a nice period of possession. Paul Staats converted this one and the Pigs lead 33-8. Our opponents managed a converted try to cut the lead to 33-15 with about 10 minutes to play – but the Pigs answered right back and closed the scoring with a nice move from Joe Lang who scored after some nice combination work by the Pigs’ back 3, leaving the final score at 40-15.
All in all, it was an outstanding performance by the whole Pigs team to move to 5-0 in league play with only one regular season match remaining.
Line Up:
1. Lauri Kahonen (Ben Hanson), 2. Alan Martin, 3. Joe Exner (Troy Midboe), 4. Ryan Backman, 5. Stephan GrandPrè, 6. Joe Bayer (Nicholas Bannon), 7. Zach Fjelstad , 8. Jason Naber (Mason Hendricks), 9. Dietrich Peterson, 10. Paul Staats, 11. Joe Lang, 12. Seth Spreadbury, 13. Jim Mlenek, 14. Grant Dietrich (Andy Schwartz), 15. Scott Colby
Scoring:
Tries: Dietrich, Fjelstad, Backman, Naber, Colby, Lang
Consversions: Naber (3/4), Staats (2/2)