Two of the Midwest’s oldest rivals went at it tooth and nail on Saturday with Bowling Green State University dominating Ohio State in a 44 – 22 victory at Bowling Green’s College Park Rugby Field.

The Falcons led 24-5 at halftime, scoring four tries, and scored another four after the break. Both teams had to deal with Bowling Green’s merciless wind, which thankfully was devoid of the torrential rain that plagued the rest of Ohio’s matches. Nonetheless, only three of the 12 tries scored were converted.

The Falcons and the Buckeyes know each other from way back.

"I’m sure that BG is 'that school up north' for them," joked Bowling Green Director of Rugby Roger Mazzarella. "Two big-time programs about a hundred miles apart, one the stepchild of the other (BG), two long-in-the tooth directors (Mazzarella and OSU’s Tom Rooney) that both played and coached against each other – and it’s a natural.

“Toss in the fact that so many of our guys played with or against each other in high school and every match is going to be a hard-hitting, knock down, drag out barnburner,” added Mazzarella. “And that is on top of the Ohio bragging rights that are usually on the line.”

Mazzarella, who is pretty sure he has played, coached or watched every single BG – OSU match ever played, estimates that between 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-side matches and 7s games, the two clubs have probably played each other about 200 times.

“I’d guess that more bets have been won and lost on our games that anywhere else in American rugby,” Mazzarella chuckled.

Bowling Green Head Coach Tony Mazzarella, knowing full well the implications of the game, stressed how much preparation the Falcons had put in to get ready for the match.

“As handily as we beat West Virginia last week, that game exposed a couple of weaknesses that Tom and Ron Bowers (OSU head coach) would spot and exploit immediately,” said Mazzarella the younger. “We spent a lot of time on our set scrums, linouts and especially ball possession on kickoffs."

The restarts ended up being a big part of the game, with flanker Niall McNamara playing a decisive role.

“It was as if he decided to take it upon himself to make sure every Buckeye kickoff was going to end in a successful Falcon possession," said Coach Mazzarella. "He was all over the place.”

Mazzarella also praised his club’s defense on the day. “Ohio State has some big boys and our guys squared right up with them every single time.”

Bowling Green wing Mario Mockus drew a first blood try on a set-up and long run by center Griffen Palmer. That would set the pattern for the rest of the afternoon as the two combined to score five tries between them.

Center Mike Powell converted and BG had a brief 7-0 lead until Buckeye No. 8 Scott Freitag cut the lead with a try two minutes later.

From then on the Falcons dominated the first half. McNamara was indeed all over the place and drove over on short yardage for a try. Palmer scored his two tries on 35- and 50-meter runs.  Powell’s second conversion made it 24-5 at halftime.

Ohio State took advantage of the Falcon’s starting the second half a little complacent and quickly drove down for a second Freitag try.  Fullback Ronan Forrestal’s conversion made it 24–12 and put the Buckeyes back in the game – for a very short time.

Just two minutes later BG flyhalf Nick Ross ran past seemingly the entire Buckeye defense before touching down. McNamara picked up his second short yardage try to make the score 34–12.

From then on, every time the Buckeyes would attempt to keep the scoring gap tantalizingly in reach, BG would have an answering try that put OSU back on square one. Wing Brandon Heidinger touched down twice in the corner for the Bucks only to see his effort matched by two from BG’s Mockus to make the final 44–22.

The Falcons, now 3-0, travel to Western Michigan next Saturday for a key MAC Northern Division game, while the Buckeyes, now 1 – 1,  will host Illinois in big Ten conference play.

- Zach Carreon