Clemson 39 UGA 3

Athens, GA
Saturday February 2, 2008
Referee: Parker Carlisle

Saturday we went up to Clemson for our first matrix match. We were missing some guys but this year we've established some real depth and I felt good about the side we had. In the first half Clemson beat us through the centers a couple times and around the outside a couple times, exploiting some defensive confusion. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot, unable to do the simple things that we did well in our last 2 games (which were bad weather, today was perfect), which meant Clemson had the ball a lot.

Halftime we were down 19-0. Second half we pressured them early and had several scoring opportunities that we didn't finish. We kicked a penalty in the 45th minute but that was it. The game got out of hand in the 70th minute as Clemson took a turnover in mid field, swung it wide, and scored. Then 5 minutes later with us camped on their goal line their #13 (who played a very strong game) picked a pass and took it 95 meters for the try. Final score was 39-3.

This is gut check time for us, to take a game we expected to win and not only lose but to lose in that fashion. We have a very strong Arkansas St team coming to Athens next week and we will find out what this team is made of.

Man of the match: Honestly, none.

1. Isaac Lee
2. Jared Swanson / Will McDonald (63rd)
3. Will McDonald / Justin Smith (63rd)
4. Matt Freimuth
5. Jake Hayden / Jeff Miller (63rd){
6. Tyler Leonard
7. Jeff Miller / Jared Swanson (63rd)
8. Michael Thompson
9. Nick Burgess
10. Ryan Cooke
11. James Roberson
12. Will Pinkston
13. Anthony Tilton
14. Ryan Downey
15. TJ McGaha

UGA 34 Clemson 5

Our B-side played well again. Tony Niknejad scored a converted try in the 3rd minute as he slipped through their centers. We missed a penalty a few minutes later but Chris Etchells scored a converted try in the 16th minute to take a 14-0 lead. Matt Freimuth, playing his second game of the day, scored on a 40 meter run in the 18th minute and Tony kicked a penalty in the 27th to make it 22-0 at half time.

Matt Freimuth scored our best try of the day in the 48th minute off a break by Tony who fed Jared who fed Matt. In the 67th minute Clemson scored a try off a 5 meter scrum in the right corner which they were unable to convert. We finished the scoring with a quick tap try in the 78th minute.

Man of the match: Lots of competition for this, but I think Tony Niknejad, for the second straight week.

1. Michael Swacha
2. Hyun Chong
3. Justin Smith
4. Jason Kim
5. Josh Mullis
6. Jordan Roe
7. Matt Freimuth
8. Gerald Lindo
9. Michael O'Keefe
10. Tony Niknejad
11. Eric Marlowe
12. Johan Uribe
13. Chris Etchells
14. David Jasper
15. Geoff Poss

 

I don't doubt there are a billion errors, feel free to let me know.