Sunday, February 8, 2009

Guilford Move to 2-0 in the East Division

Guilford-29 Duke-25

Last Saturday Guilford traveled to Durham for their second league game against Duke University. Though penalties plagued the Quakers early on Guilford was able to rally in the second half and come out on top with a four point victory. The Quakers had strong support on the sidelines from the many Guilford fans that made the drive to Durham to support their team.

First Half

Duke put the first points on the board successfully scoring a penalty kick after missing two earlier attempts. Guilford soon answered back however capitalizing on a Duke penalty to put the score at 3 all. The Quakers then spent nearly ten minutes unsuccessfully attacking from within Duke’s 22. No try resulted from the Quakers hard running and Guilford lost possession after a failed drop goal attempt from sophomore flyhalf Dave Mckindly-Ward. Again the Guilford team found themselves defending from within their own 22. Things turned from bad to worse when Guilford pack captain and flanker/eightman Andrew Slater was sent off for multiple infringements. The Duke side used this advantage to push in two tries with one converted, giving the Blue Devils a twelve point lead. With short time left in the half hard running from senior loose forward Matt Elverson gave the Quakers great field position. Within scoring range Guilford was finally able to utilize their backs, and captain and outside center Chris Pugliese was able to score Guilford’s first try of the match. A conversion by Mckindley-Ward tacked on an extra two points. The Quakers trailed by five points at halftime with the score at Duke-15 Guilford -10.

Second Half

In the beginning of the second half Guilford scored their second try when Andrew Slater ran straight through the Blue Devils blindside defense to score in the corner. Mckindley-Ward put the long conversion attempt through to give the Quakers a two point lead. Duke answered using their strong kicking game to gain field position. The Blue Devils used their position well and scored another unconverted try to give Duke a one point lead with the score at 20-19. The game continued back and forth until inside center Evan “Sunshine” Flanders broke through the Duke defense not only scoring a try but also centering the ball between the posts. Guilford’s 10 again put the conversion though giving the Quakers a four point lead. Duke once again used multiple kicks to test the Quakers back three. Fullback Joel Popkin showed great grace under pressure, and prevented a Duke try. Guilford would again score when Mckindley-Ward decided to quick tap off a penalty. He then made a skip pass to winger Cody Martin who placed the ball down in the corner to further expand the Guilford lead. David missed the difficult conversion to leave the Quakers with a nine point lead with around ten minutes remaining. Guilford would give up one more major penalty near their 5 meter line. The Blue Devils used their size to crash the ball through, but the missed penalty left the Quakers victorious with the Final score at Guilford - 29 Duke - 25.

David Mckindley-Ward was deemed Man of the Match by Coach Ben Snyder

Next Sunday the Quakers will face cross town rivals UNC-Greensboro at home for their final NCRU East Division Match.

3 comments:

MBG said...

photos pleaseeeeee

love,
your fullback abroad

Cody said...

I forgot to get anyone to take photos. We have video so maybe I can post a clip.

t-rex said...

thanks for the posts cody.

-dan miller