Sports
Life Loses in Rugby Championship
Despite a hard fought match, Running Eagles fall 20-15 to San Francisco Golden Gate in finals of 2011 U.S. Rugby Super League Championship.
For some, the finals of the 2011 U.S. Rugby Super League Championships pitted the proverbial unstoppable force against the immovable object.
"This will be a very interesting game," stated Life University Athletic Director John Barrett before the kickoff. Β "San Francisco Golden Gate is a high octane, high scoring team, and we're a strong defensive, field positioning team. We'll see which style wins."Β
In the end, the unstoppable force prevailed as the Golden Gate beat the Running Eagles 20-15.
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After two quick Golden Gate penalties, Life took a 6-0 lead early in the match. However, the lead was short-lived as Golden Gate scored a try and extra points with 13 minutes left in the half. Β Then a Life "knock on" (rugby for fumble) helped their opponents score again just two minutes later. Β Although Life scored another kick to bring their first half total to 9, Golden Gate had scored three tries on converted mistakes. By the half, Life University was down 17-9. Β
After several scrums within the try zone, Life was unable to score. Β Still within striking distance with 10 minutes left in the game, previous penalties and dropped balls proved too costly. Β Β As time ran off the clock, San Francisco Golden Gate finished with a 20-15 victory in this hard hitting, well fought match.
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After the game, Coach James Isaacson said: "The game started incredibly well for us, and we put up some points early and we looked very composed in what was a very high pressure game for both sides. We made two silly mistakes which led to 14 points by San Francisco. Β I'm very proud of these guys and we've come a long way.
"No matter what people say, we haven't got that many players and [we're] lucky we haven't had any serious injuries this year. Β We'll come back strong with these students next year."Β