28-point run sparks Bulls rugby to victory

For the first 38 minutes of the Bulls' rugby game Saturday, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln bottled up the Bulls' offense.

That all changed in a matter of seconds just two minutes before halftime when senior Dylan Rohr burst free for a 50-meter run to the try line. Rohr finally was stopped just outside the end zone, but he pitched to senior Luke Wenger, who carried the ball in for a try.

The try sparked a 28-0 scoring run for Truman, and the Bulls pulled out a 28-15 victory to finish the fall season 3-3.

Head coach Bill Sexton said falling behind early was not a concern, but rather it essentially was the game plan for Saturday. Two weeks ago the Bulls staked a 19-17 lead against St. Louis University, but they didn't have enough left in the tank at the end of the game and suffered a 24-19 loss.

Sexton said the Bulls were aiming to prevent a similar late collapse Saturday against Nebraska.

"We actually consciously talked about starting the game a little slower, not getting too wound up, not getting too hyper-kinetic and just going out there and burning ourselves out but instead really focusing on the long-term aspect of the game and staying close," Sexton said.

Wenger's try and the subsequent conversion came after Nebraska, playing with the wind in the first half, jumped to a 15-0 lead on two tries and a field goal. But Nebraska's lead could have been even bigger had it not been for a try-saving tackle near the goal line from senior Dustin Homer. Homer made a one-on-one, two-legged tackle as the last line of defense to prevent a try.

"You can coach a lot of things but you can't coach fearless[ness], and you can't coach a willingness to go in there and make the tackle," Sexton said. "That's a senior player making a clutch tackle that prevented a try that surely would've put us down 22-7 or 22-0 at the half. That could've changed the whole tone of the game."

Homer is one of three seniors, including Justin Lacy and Scott Boswell, who will graduate in December and were playing their last game for the Bulls on Saturday.

Senior Phil Powell said knowing those three were playing their final game provided a motivational boost to the rest of the Bulls. Powell also said the game carried significant weight because a loss would have made qualifying for Westerns at the end of the spring season nearly impossible. With the win, the Bulls are now 2-1 in league play.

"If we lost this game, we pretty much would be playing a pointless spring season with no chance of going to Westerns," Powell said. "So we didn't want a spring season that just wasn't worth anything."

Homer wasn't the only Bull who made a try-saving play. After the Bulls took a 21-15 lead in the second half on tries from freshman David McDonough and Lacy, Nebraska threatened to regain the lead when one of its players carried the ball into the end zone.

But Truman's junior Matt Englebart prevented the ball from being touched down in the end zone, and in rugby, for a try to count, the offensive player has to touch the ball to the ground. The held ball resulted in a scrum for Nebraska at the 5-meter line, but the Bulls prevented the try.

Had Englebart not prevented the try, Nebraska would have closed the gap to 21-20 and could have taken the lead with a conversion.

"Not only is that huge for us, but it deflates the other team as well when they're on the goal line and can't put it in," Powell said of Englebart's defensive stand.

Lacy tacked on his second try of the game later in the second half to seal the Bulls' win.

"We finally learned how to play a complete game instead of starting out on all gears and then breaking down and getting penalties late," Wenger said. "We learned how to finish a game."

Six Bulls - Lacy, Homer, McDonough, freshman Alex Koenen, senior Jason Ralph and junior captain Aaron Loida - will represent the Central Region in an all-star game in Dallas this weekend.