St. Louis Bombers Rugby Football Club

October 1, 2005 - The St. Louis Bombers held off a late Cincinnati rally to secure a hard-fought 27-24 victory over the visiting Wolfhounds. Both clubs mixed their squads for this fall friendly, with many new faces getting a run in the first XV.

St. Louis set the tone early with many line-breaking runs from their tough-to-tackle forwards. Lock Hayden Mexted, prop Scott Lay and #8 Phil Reed set the table for two early tries from flanker Zach Giljum. Veteran flyhalf Rene Monette added both conversions and a penalty kick to send the Bombers out in front 17-0 through the first quarter.

Cincy got on the scoreboard when flanker Greg Ruether dotted down after a build-up of phases to cut the lead to 17-5. Wolfhound captain Mark Heidrich launched over from the back of a scrum just before halftime, and Ryan Frentzel's conversion closed the score to 17-12 St. Louis at the intermission.

Bomber wing David Samples made Cincy pay for missing a kick to touch by carving his way through the defense and then making a perfectly timed pass to a supporting Brian Meyer to push St. Louis ahead 24-17 with Monette's conversion. Another Monette penalty kick gave St. Louis a 27-12 lead with ten minutes to play. Cincinnati prop John McCafferty finished off a break created from turnover ball in the ruck to make it a 27-19 match with Frentzel's conversion, with only minutes remaining. Cincy scrumhalf Billy Summer poached a ball from under the feet of the Bombers scrum and raced home on the last play of the match to bring the final to 27-24 in favor of St. Louis.

A few highlights on the day for the Bombers were 17 year-old Bomber lock Dan Aten's debut with the 1st XV, the play of 19 year-old prop Canaan Craig, and the try saving tackle by omni-present flanker Alex McPheeters- racing 50 meters to haul down Cincy's wing late in the match.

Both clubs have important cup matches next week. The Wolfhounds play the Chicago Griffins in a CR3# match, and St. Louis hosts the Omaha GOATS in CR#2.

The Whites played a short half vs. the short-handed Wolfhounds and went down 8-0 against most of their first side in 20 minutes of action. Bomber center Eric Hinson, lock Julius Mingala, halfback Will Lentz, flyhalf Dan Schwartzmeyer and flanker Dave Domian stood out in this brief affair. Young winger Bobby Ciapciak made some impressive tackles against some much bigger opponents.

Spotted on the touchline were Bomber legends Cliff Schlereth, Sterling Hayden, Chris Vogelsang, John Kyle, Ron Skiljan Sr. and Jr., Mark Sasser and many more illustrious players of the past. Ryan and Greg Colombo once again did a tremendous job hosting both clubs at Colombos Tavern.