Article Submitted By Head Coach Dr. Gregg Jones

For the second consecutive year, Marco Barnard , 5'9, 205 lbs,  captain and inside center at Kutztown University has been named to the USA Rugby All-American Team. Marco has also been named to the All-American Touring side. The team departs on July 13,2008 , for Wellington New Zealand , and a three week tour, down under.

It was nine o'clock on Saturday morning and I met all the freshmen at the rugby field. It was the age old tradition of rookies setting up the field for game day. However, on this day, there wasn't a lot for them to do because the field was covered with two inches of snow . No one could find the lines and it was hovering near thirty four degrees with a forecast of rain. I was concerned because the Syracuse University rugby team was en-route and it was going to be a sloppy day of rugby. We held the team breakfast and watched as more snow descended on the campus, but when the squad left the cafeteria, we were drenched in sunshine. When we reported to the field for taping and warm-up , the snow had evaporated and the ground was heavy , but in a semi-solid marsh like condition. The footing was going to be slow but the lines were visible and Luckenbill Ave. was playable.

Syracuse was coming to town with a 10-3 record from last semester and a 2-0 record this season. Their only losses being at the hands of Northeast regional qualifiers, Brockport University and the University of Buffalo. They had also sustained a loss early in the fall while on tour to Canada. They fell to Canadian collegiate powerhouse Queens University. The Orangemen were coming to Kutztown with a very respectable record and very positive press releases in the national rugby internet magazines. They were anxious to test themselves against a team of Kutztown's caliber and reputation.        

Kutztown opened the day's action with a high end over end kickoff to the Orangemen and just like that, Syracuse deviated from the norm and spun the ball out to their backs and attacked from behind their own twenty two. Needless to say they caught some people off guard and ate up a sizeable chunk of real estate as they let everyone know they were here to play. The momentum was in their favor and they ground their way to the Kutztown red zone with a pack of big powerful forwards that were not intimidated one iota by the maroon and gold jerseys. At the four minute mark , one of their tight five fell on the ball in the end zone as the Orangemen worked their forward pack with aggressive precision. All of a sudden the Golden Bears were holding a meeting under the posts, as the Syracuse place-kicker missed the conversion. SU 5  KU  0 .At the ten minute mark, Kutztown swung the ball wide in the vicinity of their own thirty yard line and found the outstretched hands of Marco Barnard. He turned the corner and zigzagged his way through several defenders and into daylight for an electrifying jaunt of seventy yards and paydirt. Ewan Maisey converted and the scoreboard read KU  7  SU 5 . Both teams spent ten minutes wrestling back and forth at midfield when Marco Barnard ran wide to his right, straightened up, just enough to freeze his defender , dished off to  fullback Ewan Maisey who in turn found Mike Mcnallen racing down the sideline. MacNellan was under pressure from the angling defenders and twenty yards later dished the ball back to Ewan Maisey. Ewan cut inside and was ten yards from the goal line when a Syracuse defender twisted him to his left. Ewan was going down but instinctively looked for support and found flyhalf Josh Keys trailing the play at full pace. Ewan dished off to Josh and he dove under the posts with a Syracuse defender hot on his heels.  Ewan converted and the score was KU 14  SU  5 . At the 30 minute mark , Marco Barnard called for the kicking tee on a penalty call near the midfield stripe. He lined up the ball and proceeded to launch it through the uprights and ten yards beyond the dead ball line. It was a massive kick and sent out a proclamation that Kutztown was capable of scoring anywhere inside the opposition's half of the field. I have seen kicks of this magnitude , demoralize many rugby teams and I thought it might have the same effect on the Orangemen. To my amazement, not one Syracuse player dropped their head or muttered a word. Eight minutes later they were knocking on Kutztown's door with that physical tight five banging away on the goal line. They got in, KU 17  SU 10. The half ended with the Golden Bears on their way to the sidelines and a few suggestions about tactical changes. The Bears had challenged the Syracuse forwards and came away with a stalemate . Syracuse had neutralized the challenge and were successful at slowing down the Kutztown ball out of the rucks , while their personnel reorganized on the defensive side of the ball. Kutztown now realized where the orange crush resided and it was time to change the attack .             

When the Bears received the restart for the second stanza,  it was quite evident that Syracuse was going to be seeing a different picture. Marco Barnard caught the kick-off and ran hell-bent for leather towards the center of the field as the Kutztown forwards ran off his right flank and the backline was formed on his left, just when everyone in the house expected him to pass the ball wide, he offloaded a sweet little pass inside, to a trailing Derk Scheepers . The Kutztown # 8 kicked it into high gear and ran through the Orangemen at a blistering pace , down to the Syracuse ten yard line. Kutztown spent the next few minutes in the Syracuse red zone , applying pressure with their forwards but to no avail as the Orange Crush stood up and beat back the onslaught. Finally, the ball went wide and inside center Marco Cardillo sliced through an arm tackle and then ricocheted off an orange jersey and into the end zone , near the posts. KU 24  SU 10 . Surely this took some of the steam out of the Syracuse attack. Not so quick my friend. Five minutes later Syracuse picks up an errant ball lost in contact and takes the turnover down to the Kutztown twenty yard line and sends their big horses smashing into the gain line where their outside center gets an off load and races into the house untouched. KU 24  SU 17Kutztown restarts with a deep kick into the corner , where a Syracuse player catches the ball but has it jarred lose by a tackle, producing a bouncing ball that ends up in the hands of Kutztown 2nd row Greg Brooks. Greg runs down the sideline and right before being driven out of bounds, near the goal line , he off loads a soft pass into the hands of Kutztown flanker Cory Collins for the try.  Marco Barnard hits an impossible angle kick from the sideline and Kutztown vaults ahead  31-17 . On the next restart , Barnard puts the ball in the same deep corner, a Syracuse player mishandles it and Kutztown pressures them into losing the ball on contact. Jason Zinc , who is now in the game as a replacement at fullback , comes up with the rock and swerves through two or three defenders to touch down under the posts. KU 36  SU  17.           The match is ticking down with about fifteen minutes left , when Syracuse kicks for touch and puts the ball within five yards of the Kutztown goal line. A driving maul and two or three forward picks from the base of the ruck puts one of the Syracuse flankers in the big house. KU  36   SU  24 . 

The Orangemen refuse to go away. Their forwards are playing extremely tough and a few Kutztown miscues combined with the Syracuse tenacity is keeping them within striking distance of the up-set. A few minutes later a tenacious Kutztown defense picks up a turn over situation and center Mike  McNallen is of to the races when he comes under pressure and off-loads to Marco Barnard . Barnard picks up some valuable yardage and sets up winger Kyle Moser. The big wing , powers his way into the end zone and dots down just left of the posts. KU 43  SU  24 . The Golden Bears are definitely riding the wave of momentum they had created by capitalizing on Syracuse miscues . In the closing moments of the contest, Marco Barnard was going weakside when he took a wide pass off the base of a ruck  and turned the corner eight yards from the end zone. Here he fired a pass to fellow South African and # 8 Dirk Scheepers . Dirk was attacking at full speed when he caught the ball and extended his body parallel to the ground and dove into the corner for a try that would have rated on any sports center "Play of the Week" .  A few moments later the referee blew full time and this one was in the record books.                

It was a very good test for both sides and Kutztown comes away with the type of match they needed to prepare for next weekend and the University of Delaware. The Golden Bears will depart for Richmond, Virginia on Friday afternoon and put it all on the line as they battle the Blue Hens for a birth in the national sweet sixteen tournament on Saturday , March 29, 2008 at 11AM . The match will be played at Pole Green Park, Richmond, Virginia. CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS!

How many times have the Kutztown faithful read that headline over the years. Well, if you don't happen to know, I'll be glad to inform you, the answer is never. The Golden Bears have only played Penn State , a half dozen times over the last twenty two years , but
last Saturday was lucky number seven.
         On a sunny autumn day in Nittany Valley, with the yellow and gold mountain range as a back drop and a cool autumn breeze blowing in from the north , Kutztown took the field. The field was Penn State's brand spankin new, two million dollar rugby facility with dark
green artificial turf and permanently painted lines that seemed to glisten off the plastic grass.There were tall statuesque rugby post adding a touch of dignity to the scene, like four sentinels, guarding the integrity of the game. All of this encapsulated by an eight foot black wire
fence, that held the throng of blue and white clad alumni, enjoying their 2007 homecoming day. Their homecoming festivities were interrupted by a Kutztown avalanche that produced twenty points in the first twenty five minutes of the contest. Golden Bear's skipper, Marco Barnard broke the ice in the first minute of the match, as he took an offload from fullback Ewan Maisey, who had just sprinted down the sideline and through the Penn State defense for a nifty forty yards. Ewan converted and the Bears were on the scoreboard 7-0 . The Nittany Lions appeared to shake it off as an accidental lapse in their defense and prepared to kick-off to the Bears. Within a few minutes, Kutztown was knocking on the door once again, deep in the Penn State red zone, Ewan Maisey calmly struck a penalty kick and it was Kutztown up by ten.  After yet another restart, the Kutztown forwards started in on the prescribed game plan, as they ran three and four abreast. Like a German blitzkrieg, they hurled their bodies into the white jerseys and repeatedly broke the gain line as they chewed up valuable real estate and decimated the Lions midfield defense. From that vantage point, the Bears had the option to attack either side of the field. They produced quick ball and Kutztown's field general, Marco Barnard, could be heard barking orders and directions as he guided his troops into the fray. Down the field they went and on a blindside forward rush, twelve yards from the goal line # 6 Cory Collins took control of the situation and bulldozed his way through four Penn State defenders, as he reached out in the corner and planted the ball over the last stripe. Kutztown was up 15-0 and fifteen minutes into the game. The next ten minutes saw Kutztown play the entire game inside Penn State territory. Chris Pettine, the Kutztown Hooker, was stationed in a designated slot off of the Bears lineouts and when given the ball, he was instrumental in shredding the Lions defense. An alert Marco Barnard interpreted the game a few phases ahead of the action, and along with his running mate Marco Cardillo, sent the maroon jerseys in a rapid wave of precision attacks, left or right, weakside or strong, they never stopped coming, culminating in a powerful maul that sent Penn State reeling. Kutztown's tighthead prop, Steffan Ruff, rolled off all that momentum with the ball and rocketed into the end zone to dot it down  left of the posts. Exactly twenty five minutes in and Kutztown was demonstrating superiority at  20-0 .

           The Nittany Lions were on the brink of destruction and their captain, All-American scrumhalf Nick Grala gathered his troops under the goal post and reminded them in no uncertain terms who they were and what they represented. The next ten minutes saw Penn State stiffen their defense and started to swing the ball wide at every opportunity,hoping that eventually it would produce an advantage or an overlap in Kutztown's defense. As the Golden Bears flew around the field in defense, outside center Marco Cardillo was penalized for reaching in and not letting go of the ball in a tackle situation. I nor anyone else understood what happened next, the referee pulled out a yellow card and decided to send Cardillo to the sin bin for ten minutes. This was an opportunity that Penn State had to capitalize on and one extra man in their backline  was a huge advantage for the home team. The Nittany Lions have an excellent and speedy fullback in Luke Roberts ( Kutztown fans might remember his brother Jessie Roberts, who played # 10 for West Chester and last spring we saw him , when he lined up for the Brandywine RFC ) , who along with a very crafty # 10 Justin Lotter, fired off a barrage of wide ball that eventually sent Roberts into the corner for Penn State's first try. KU 20  PSU 5. Even with a man down, Kutztown was standing toe to toe with the Lions. The Penn State backline worked furiously to create another overlap situation against Kutztown's depleted midfield defense and with only seconds left in the half, Penn State's # 10 Justin Lotter used a dummy to slip through a gap and dot down for the Nittany Lions. The first half ended with Kutztown out in front. KU  20  PSU  10 . 
         The second stanza started with the momentum still in Penn State's favor, it was only three minutes into the half, when they once again capitalized on Kutztown, still playing with Cardillo in the sin bin. The score now read Kutztown 20  Penn State 15. Less then a minute later, Cardillo re-entered the game and instantly clicked on the confidence, in the Kutztown squad.They gave him the ball and he ripped off yardage with two respectable runs while re-inserting himself with authority on defense. Kutztown was back to full strength and they were playing possessed to try and turn the momentum back their way. At the sixty four minute mark, the Bears turned the ball over on the outer fringe of the Lion's red zone. Chris Pettine took a pass and turned up field , kicked into gear and sped for the goal line like a runaway freight train. Along the way he side stepped a defender and ten yards from the goal line, off loaded in contact, to a speeding ( you guessed it ) Marco Cardillo. Marco ran in untouched and scored next to the right post. Ewan Maisey converted and the score was Kutztown 27  Penn State 15. Penn State never gave up and torqued it up a notch as they proved why they are so dangerous, scoring on the seventy eighth minute to make the final score Kutztown  27  Penn State 20 . It was a tremendous game, with two of the nation's more highly respected programs demonstrating that the MARFU Premier League is a true litmus test for survival, at the highest collegiate level.
                                                   
RUN WITH THE BEARS
                                                                  
Doc Jones