|
News
Griffins Escape 15 -
8 Against Augusta
February 27, 2007 -- This past Saturday at "John Roberts Park"
on the Furman University campus the Greenville Griffins managed
to come from behind late in the second half to secure a hard
fought 15 - 8 victory over their visiting D2 rivals Augusta.
The victory served as revenge for the loss suffered to Augusta
in the championship match of the Palmetto tournament this past
fall and allowed the Griffins to retain their spot on the top
of the D2 table with an undefeated record in the 2007 matrix
competition.
Although there were several notable changes made to the starting 15 and
the match day 22 from the previous week, it would have to be said that the
Griffins came into the Augusta showdown riding high on the wave of success
created from three straight matrix victories. Little did they know that
the wave was about to come crashing down and that it just about tossed
them on their heads.
Amongst other things the first half was disjointed, unfocused,
undisciplined, and just flat out ugly. The Griffins floundered about but
simply could not put their finger on the pulse of the match. It started
out as one of those days where you just could not seem to do anything
right and it slowly got worse. First came the knock's, then came the
penalties, then came the attempts to persuade the ref that they were not
really penalties, and then to top it off the verbal criticism started.
With such a high penalty count, the Griffins coughed up at least 8
penalties in the first 30 minutes, the Griffins were lucky to come out of
the first half with only a 3 point deficit (Greenville 0 - Augusta 3).
The second half got under way with some disfunctional tackling by #13 Mike
Miller which resulted in a long try for his opposite number and the
Griffins were quickly looking at their first real challenge of the season.
Luckily enough for the Griffins it seemed as though whatever spell had
been cast to bring out such a terrible first half performance had been
lifted and they managed to start stringing together some half way decent
rugby. After some sustained pressure inside of the Augusta 22 #1 Zach
Hunt was finally able to get the Griffins on the board with his third try
of the season somewhere around the 60th minute of the match. Jonathan
Mullikin added the extras and Greenville crept to within one (Greenville
7 - Augusta 8).
With a sense that the game was starting to slowly slip away, the Griffins
shifted things into high gear and began putting together the first sight
of multi phase rugby on the day. After moving deep into Augusta territory
they struck for their second try of the half just five minutes after their
first, and from that point forward they would not trail again. #13 Mike
Miller touched down his third try of the season after a clever little
grubber off of the boat of #10 Brett Ferria. Mullikin was unable to
convert but the Griffins had managed to inch ahead (Greenville 12 -
Augusta 8). Again on attack inside of the Augusta 22 in the 71st minute
the Griffins found their way to penalty. Mullikin calmly slotted the gift
and moved the Griffins out to their fianl resting spot (Greenville 15 -
Augusta 8).
It was the most difficult match that the Griffins have played in this
season and the side showed the ability to keep their cool late in the day
to come away with the victory. This young Griffins side still has a lot
of growing up to do but being at the top of the table with an undefeated
record half way through the season is a pretty good spot to be in.
Championship teams don't always win pretty, they just win. In the words
of one of the Griffins best, Tommy Liddle, "It ain't about what she looks
like when you leave the bar, happiness is just a light switch away".
This week the Griffins will travel to Charleston to face off in a key
match against the second place Outlaws.
|
|
|
|
