By Gabby Pacitti
Contributor
The Lions fell to Bucknell University in their first match of the season on Sept. 9, with a final score of 73-7. Bucknell put pressure on the Lions from start to finish in an intense showcase of strength and speed.
In an unexpected turn of events, the game was played without an official referee. With no certified referee, the match became a scrimmage, and the Lions were forced to forfeit as the home team. Bucknell’s assistant coach stepped up to call the first half of the game, while the Lions’ own sophomore member Aidan Lopez called the second half.
The Lions’ captain, senior Michael Crockett, kicked off to start the game, resulting in Bucknell gaining possession of the ball. A scrum followed the play, allowing the Lions to take possession. Sophomore Ray Lipinski made a run downfield before being tackled and losing the ball to Bucknell.
A lineout restarted play after senior Chris Glaze took the Bucknell player in possession of the ball out of bounds. However, Bucknell was able to stay in control and scored their first try of the game. The successful conversion kick that followed put Bucknell ahead of the Lions 7-0 in the first half.
Another try and successful conversion by Bucknell advanced them to 14-0 over the College. Crockett kicked off to continue play, and this time the Lions were able to gain and keep possession of the ball.
Rookie Braden Negro helped put the boys on the scoreboard, scoring the team’s only try of the day. Crockett assisted by making the two-point conversion kick, upping the score to 14-7. Negro’s play would later earn him the title of Player of the Game for the Lions.
Following the try by the Lions, Bucknell kicked off to continue play. They maintained possession after scrumming and scored yet another try and conversion. At half time, the Lions trailed Bucknell 21-7.
The second half of the match saw rookies account for more than half of the lineup. With so many new players on the field, it makes sense that the Lions struggled to keep possession of the ball. Sophomore newcomer Bryant Egeonu made a run downfield for the Lions, but failed to release the ball when tackled. Bucknell regained possession as a result of this error and finished the game with an additional eight tries and six successful conversions, besting the Lions 73-7.
While the second half was not as strong for the Lions, the rookies were clearly trying to find their footing. Rookie freshman Lucas Stahlnecker made an impressive 16 tackles, which made him the second team member to earn Player of the Game status.
Kaeleb Lowry, a junior mechanical engineering major who plays inside center, reflected on the team’s performance after the loss.
“It’s a team we haven’t played before, so seeing that they came out like that was a little bit of a wake-up call,” he said. “I’m not going to say we underestimated them, but we were too comfortable with our own expectations of how we were going to play.”
As for his individual performance, Lowry felt he could have contributed more to the game. He said, “I left the first half thinking I could have contributed more. I’m sure a lot of guys felt that walking off, but I'm an older guy, one of the guys the rookies look at to learn from and I felt like I could have been more active and I could have had a bigger impact on the game.”
Although Lowry might have been underwhelmed with his own performance, captain Michael Crockett, a senior accounting major, remained optimistic with the team as a whole.
“I think the team performed very promisingly, and I think it’s an unfortunate game to have our first match against Bucknell,” he said. “They’re from an upper division, so I think it’s a learning curve that we’re facing but I think a lot of guys played very promisingly and we’re gonna go from there.”
Looking ahead at the rest of the season, the captain’s goal is plain and simple: maintain a positive record. “We have seven total games, eight if we get to the playoffs, so going 4-3 or 5-2 would be great,” Crockett said.
The Lions look to get in the win column in their next game on Saturday, Sept. 16, in another home fixture against Bloomsburg University.
