Penn State Edges Ohio State

Saturday Sep 12, 2009 in Amateur Competitions Division I Colleges

Penn State University got a late try from freshman fullback Greg Boitt to edge Ohio State University 26-22 Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

In a game that featured more than its share of freshmen, both teams had some good and not-so-good moments. For OSU, which had been beaten badly by Navy a week before, this was certainly a step forward.

“I’m disappointed we lost the game because we felt we had it won,” said Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney. “But for us it was a big step forward.”

Ohio State started an almost completely revamped backline, and got a huge game from freshman center Spencer Dye, who scored two, including the go-ahead score late. Eric Sanchez and Ryan Cochran also scored for Ohio State.

But two tries form Bryan Oteri and a forwards’ score set up Boitt’s winning try.

“It’s an early season game and it was very physical,” said Penn State director of rugby Don Ferrell. “I thought Ohio State played really well and we came out of that game with stuff to work on.”

Penn State showed well in the scrum, and their backs exploited some iffy OSU tackling, while the Buckeyes’ ability to read the game on attack pleased their coach.

“They played good attacking rugby, but we also gave them 21 points on our poor tackling,” said Rooney, adding that freshmen don’t even move in at OSU until next weekend, so the team is still coming together.

“We have eight freshmen sleeping on upperclassmen couches at the moment,” he said. “Our schedule is tough and it makes it hard to get started. But I found three centers this weekend.”

- Alex Goff