Bowling Green had little trouble with Temple in its USA Rugby Round of 16 match Saturday.
The Falcons didn’t score for the first 11 minutes of the game, but still went on to post a dominating
64-5 victory over the Owls to advance to Sunday’s regional final against Florida.
BG, the top-ranked team in Division I, will meet the Gators back at BGSU’s Cochrane Field at 3 p.m. with
a trip to the Final Four May 13-14 at Stanford University on the line.
BG scored the game’s first 40 points on a windy day in front of a large and festive crowd of Falcon
alumni, fans and students.
“I’ve got to say this is probably the most complete game we’ve played,” BG coach Tony Mazzarella said.
“They just played every facet of the game exactly how I would have had them do it. It was really a
textbook day for us.
“I think they feel it too. I think they were feeling how disciplined they were being. They were moving
the ball when they should. They were taking tackles, they were disciplined on defense. It really all
showed and came together today.”
Falcon standout Nick Viviani led the way from his fly half position, totaling 24 points in the match,
including eight successful conversions.
“We meant to come out here and set a tone on our home field,” Viviani said. “Usually the second half is
when we let up a little bit, but we didn’t this time. We just kept the pressure on. It was good to come
out in the first 10 minutes of the second half and keep bringing the momentum.”
BG built its lead to 26-0 at halftime, as Viviani found Makonnen Rice with a nice pass for BG’s first
score at the 28:50 mark of the first half. Max Narewski, Dominic Mauer, and Viviani also added scores
for the Falcons in the first half.
The Falcons continued to build momentum in the second half, scoring twice in the first five minutes to
build their lead to 40-0.
“The first 10 minutes I think both teams were trying to figure out what would work and what didn’t. We
had a couple breaks and just didn’t get the finishing passes off,” Mazzarella said. “We saw that we
could move it out wide pretty well. And when the passes are really going well and they’re accurate and
the guys run their routs well, I think we’re really tough to beat.”
Temple, ranked 22nd, scored it’s lone try at the 28:15 mark of the second half.
Fourth-ranked Florida defeated No. 10 Maryland, 57-16, in the first match of the day. The Gators and
Falcons will be playing for a trip to the Final Four and a chance for BG to win its first ever national
title.
“It means a lot to us. We’ve never had a national event like this with our home crowd here. We definitely
felt the home crowd advantage. It’s definitely good to hear the crowd for us,” Viviani said.
“They put up a big number against (Maryland), so it’s going to be tough,” added Viviani about Florida.
“We watched them play a little bit, so we’re going to have to prepare really hard for the next one. It
will be a lot tougher I think.”