Blues Men Results
Match Results:
Blues 17 Michigan (Alum) 67 – Oct 22
Man of the Match:
Nick VanderLaan
Blues 66 Detroit 15 – Oct 15
The weather conditions at game time on Saturday where a complete opposite to the sunny 85 degree temperatures that the Blues experienced the previous week in Fort Wayne. Fortunately, the outcome of the game was also very different. This week’s match pitted the Detroit Tradesmen against the Blues at the Grand Traverse Civic Center. Both teams have seen their fair share of trials and tribulations through out the season and the Blues looked forward to proving that they were better than what their record showed. The Tradesmen could only muster a dirty dozen to travel to Traverse City, but showed up wanting to give the Blues a tough match. Head coach Matt Szatkiewicz and assistant coach Stephanie Kehrer , where able to provide two quality players for the Tradesmen. While crafty veteran Jim Kehrer, always coming prepared, came off the sidelines to fill out the Tradesmen’s roster with a solid 15 players. The start of the match saw the Blues and Tradesmen struggle to find their rhythm, with neither team being able to move the ball successfully for the first 10 minutes. However, the Tradesmen got on the scoreboard first with some nice ball handling and hard run through several Blues players. This found the Blues down 5 – 0. The Blues kicked off and after forcing the Tradesmen to turn over the ball, put together a number of nice passes to drive toward the try line. Jason Kreta, a last minute substitution at scrum half, picked up the ball from a ruck and ran in for the first Blues score. With the score 5-5 the Blues received the ball and continued to put together handle the ball well and put together a nice series of phases that resulted in Ryan Fortune breaking through the Tradesmen defense with the second score on the day. With the score 10-5 the Blues would never relinquish the lead the res t of the day. The remainder of the first half saw several different Blues players scoring. Nick Pfropper scored with some nice off load passing from his brother, Dave Wenkel ran through the Tradesmen defense like a hot knife through butter, and Champ Bodell just turned on the after burners to score the last try of the half. Champ also made one conversion which left the score at 27-5.
The second half opened with the Blues coming out playing tough and after several minutes, Derek Councilor powered through the Tradesmen defense to touch the ball down for a try. The conversion just missed, and the score was now 32-5. The Tradesmen didn’t give up and came back and scored another try to improve the score 32-10. The rest of the game was in the Blues favor and they continued to wear down the Tradesmen. Shortly after the Tradesmen score, the Blues went on the offense and Nick Pfropper scored his second try of the game. Champ Bodell followed with his second conversion. Shortly after Ryan Fortune but together a nice string of grub kicks down the pitch, culminating with Champ Bodell touching it down for his second try. This made the score 44-5. The Tradesmen put together another nice series of phases, but the Blues defense held and forced a turn over that lead to first year player Matt Wilcox scoring his first try of the year. Eric Pfropper scored the next try with his brother returning the favor. This would be the tenth try of the day. Champ was able to make the conversion and the score was well in the Blues favor 56-5. Derek Councilor followed with his second try of the day. The Tradesmen would put together one last scoring drive late in the game and after some tough defense, they were able to squirt through for their last score of the game. The Blues were not finished though, and Ryan Fortune out ran the Tradesmen and was able to score his second on the day and the last of the Blues tries. The game finished shortly after with a score 66-15.
Man of the Match – Eric Pfropper
Blues nill Ft. Wayne 90 – Oct 8
Traverse city traveled to Ft. Wayne with 14 players (half of them rookies), gave it there all, but could not handle the extra man for 14 players to defend against resulting in the lopsided score 90-0.
“Blues were not outplayed, but out-manned, with rookies at both wings, and outside center, and no fullback. They spread the field and kicked to space very well. The extra man killed us, plus no subs.”, said Captain Dave Wenkel.
Blues have a two game home-stand the next two weekends to close out the season.
Man of the Match:
John Doe for his play at fullback
Blues 28 TC Barb0s nill- Oct 1
Traverse city ripped the Barbarians for the 28-0 victory. The Blues are now 1-3 and gained 5 points in the standings and now have 6 and currently tied for 6th place . Next week they travel to Ft. Wayne and then close the season out with two more home matches against first place Michigan Men and the last place Tradesmen of Detroit. The Blues will be hiolding our annual charity drive on that last home match.
From Josh:
Speaking of donating… We will continue the tradition of Rugby Gives Back on our last home match of the season. We will be collecting toiletries and non perishable items to give to a couple local pantries. Please start collecting stuff now so that we can really show a lot of love and hope to the community.
Flint 82 Blues 7 – Sep 24
Traverse city came to Flint looking for their first win of the season. Unfortunately, they came up on the losing side of a very lopsided score, 82-7. Traverse City struggled with shaking off the grogginess of the three and half hour drive and came out very slow and with little urgency. Flint quickly to advantage of the the Blues, scoring several try’s in the first 20 minutes of the match. The Blues did put together several opportunities deep in the Flint backfield, but eventually ended up turning over the ball. The Blues remained scoreless until the waning minutes of the first half, when Eric Pfropper took a nice off load pass to score under the posts. Champ Bodell made the conversion. The first half ended with the Blues down 7 – 36.
The second half started very similar to the first with Flint taking advantage of the Blues inexperience and missed tackles to put on a try scoring clinic. The Blues did drive the ball inside Flint’s 5 meter line, but came up short in the e d as time ran out. Head coach Matt Szatkiewicz stated, that he was proud that the team played hard for the entire 80 minutes and how several players played through injuries to finished the game. This game is behind us and will take the bitterness of this loss with us into next weeks game with Tri-Cities.
Man of the Match:
Jimmy Turnbull
Scoring:
Eric Pfropper 5
Conversions:
Champ Bodell 1 of 1 (2)
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KZOO thwart Blues rally 39-29 – Sep 17
Saturday September 17th saw the Traverse Bay Blues play host to the Kalamazoo Dogs in their home opener. This match saw the return of several veterans that had been missing from last week’s roster. The added experience was a much needed addition to the inexperienced squad. The first 10 minutes of the game saw both teams struggling to find their rhythm, before Kalamazoo was able to capitalize on first of several mistakes that the Blues would make in the first half. After the first try under the goal posts, Kalamazoo continued to put points on the board and the Blues went into half down 22 – 0.
The second half started much like the first, with Kalamazoo scoring in the opening minutes. However, the Blues did not give up and put together and series of phases that resulted in first year Blues player Zac Carver putting the first points of the day on the scoreboard. Champ Bodell followed with the conversion leaving the score 29-7. Kalamazoo then mounted some great defense that resulted in the Blues turning over the ball leading to another Kalamazoo try. Shortly after Blues player Eric Pfropper took a nice offload pass from his brother Nick to score Traverse City’s second try of the day. Unfortunately, the conversion missed and the scored closed to 36 -12. The Blues then appeared to wake up and began to put Kalamazoo on their heels. Unfortunately a penalty stopped the Blues momentum and Kalamazoo was able to capitalize with a penalty kick adding 3 more points to their total. This was the last that Kalamazoo would score The Blues continued to play hard and really turned on the pressure the last twenty minutes of the game. Traverse City’s Champ Bodell and Ryan Fortune put on a nice display of passing and running that resulted in Ryan scoring the third try of the game. This time Champ Bodell was successful in the conversion and the Blues saw the score close to 36 -19. Minutes later, Jimmy Turnball, a recent addition to the club this season, broke through the Kalamazoo defense and scored another try for the Blues. With just over five minutes left in the game, the Blues put on an impressive display of rucking and ball control that resulted in Dave Findley breaking through an attempted tackle to score a try. With the conversion missing from the sideline, Traverse City found themselves down 39-29 with minutes left. Unfortunately, time expired just as the Blues were putting together another series of phases that most surely would have resulted in another score.
Head coach Matt Szatkiewicz commented after the match that he was,” proud of the way the team played today and that there was a definite improvement in the second half of the game. Unfortunately, the Blues made some errors early on in the game that Kalamazoo was able capitalize on.” Assistant coach, Stephanie Kehrer, noted that she was “happy to see the backs execute the plays that they had been working on through out the week successfully. “ Both coaches look forward to the upcoming week of practice and the continued improvement of the team
Man of the Match:
Ryan Fortune out center
Scoring:
Zac Carver 5
Ryan Fortune 5
Eric Pfropper 5
Hoss Findlay 5
Jimmy Turnball 5
Conversions:
Champ Bodell 2 of 5 / 4pts.
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Battle Creek Griffon steps it up on TC 64-7 – Sep 10
Traverse City traveled with an inexperienced team but they played hard and gained valuable experience in Battle Creek to a much improved side for the Griffons. “This is the first loss I can remember to them – ever?”, said a puzzled Darric Newman? It is nice to see Battle Creek coming of age. There club has had some tough years.
Man of the Match:
Barney BA Baracus Prop/ rookie
Scoring:
Derek Councilor (3) – 5 try
Champ Bodell (15) - 2 Conversion
League Scores:
Flint 17/ KZOO 27;
Det 16/ MICH 58;
TRICITY 50/ FTW 22
