The Milwaukee Barbarians moved up the Men’s Midwest Division 1 ladder today to claim second place with a 3-1-0 record after defeating the Ohioan visitors, Scioto Valley.
Fresh off a confidence-building win last week against the Blues, Scioto Valley began the match with confidence and settled into a long stretch of parry and thrust in the opening minutes of the match.
Tensions were steadily rising until the Barbarians dotted down over the whitewash at the 14 minute mark through fullback Justin Patterson. The unconverted try gave the hosts a 5-0 lead and the confidence to push harder.
In fact, the Barbarians shocked Scioto Valley with a second try just 3 minutes later following a huge personal effort from winger Nate Olsen who chipped over the fast-up defense, collected his own kick and scored untouched beneath the posts, setting up the easy conversion for Bartlett. 12-0 Milwaukee.
The Barbarians continued to set the tempo for much of the remaining half and the center combination of Fine (Captain) and Smyth yielding a number of probing line-breaks in midfield until Patterson scored again at 33 minutes. Following the conversion by Bartlett, Milwaukee were up 19-0 and looked to headed to a run-away victory.
Scioto Valley had other plans and continued to press the Barbarians and trap them in their own territory. At 39 minutes, a penalty to Scioto Valley set up a dangerous attacking platform — a line-out deep inside the red zone.
With the half-time whistle looming, Milwaukee’s Ben Landry pulled off an amazing steal — see video below — at the front of the line-out and the immediate clearance by the Barbarians denied any points to the visitors before the half.
Picking up where they left off
Despite their inability to score, Scioto Valley refused to let up and continued to press the Barbarians, drawing an easy penalty at 42 minutes to finally get on the scoreboard, 19-3 Milwaukee.
Just 8 minutes later, Scioto Valley scored again with an unconverted try by the inside center to narrow the scoreline, 19-8.
But thoughts of a dream comeback were abruptly dashed aside when Landry barreled over for 5 the 57 minute mark. Bartlett notched his third conversion to put the match out of reach at 26-8.
The remaining minutes of the game were conspicuous for the lop-sided penalty count to Scioto Valley. This allowed long periods of possession by the visitors leading to a penalty and a try.
Final score: 26-16 bonus-point win for Milwaukee.
Barbarians Roster and Scoring
- JP Kloiber (Sub, 50″-Joseph Kloiber.)
- Kyle Cwiklis (Sub, 70″-Castillo.)
- Aaron Young
- Ben Smith
- Ben Landry (1T)
- Alex Oldakowski (Sub, 70″-Loots.)
- Ryan Walczak (Sub, 50″-Sims.)
- Charlie Wagner
- Jerry Petfalski
- Zach Albert
- Robert Bartlett (3C)
- Kevin Smyth
- Mark Fine (Captain)
- Nate Olsen (1T)
- Justin Patterson (2T)
- Joseph Kloiber
- Johannes Loots
- Tony Sims
- Paul Castillo
- Sam Huschen
- Mark Tobin
