UGA 6 Wake Forest 3

Athens, GA
Saturday January 26, 2008
Referee: Paulson

Weather was nice today with some wind. Wake Forest had the wind in the first half and the ball to go with it. We went up 3-0 on a Ryan Cooke penalty from 38 meters 2 minutes in. From then on Wake had the ball pretty much the rest of the half. They pressured and we stayed in our end but the only points they could get were on a 35 meter penalty in the 38th minute. They had one nice break by their fullback and, several phases later, had a 3 on 2 out wide but Will Sayers intercepted the pass to end the threat. Wake Forest had a player sin binned just before half for stomping in a ruck.

We weren't able to make any use of the man advantage as Wake held the ball most of those 10 minutes but, again, weren't able to score. We took the lead on another Ryan Cooke penalty in the 58th minute. Wake Forest missed 2 penalties and we missed 1 at various points... if my notes were better (or I was willing to check the game film) I could tell you where those were. We started to gain some possession in the second half and by the end of the game were controlling it. We were clearly the fitter team but we weren't able to push it across the line.

It was encouraging in that we won the game despite playing defense for 60 minutes and it was encouraging that we increased our share of posession as we went, but it's clear that we still have work to do before matrix season starts next week against Clemson.

Man of the match: Archie Japaridze / Andy Flage who both played strong games from their loose forward positions, consistently making tackles behind the gain line.

1. Evan Jones
2. Jared Swanson
3. Justin Smith / Isaac Lee (55th)
4. Matt Freimuth
5. Jeff Miller
6. Tyler Leonard
7. Archie Japaridze / Gerald Lindo (20-25th blood)
8. Andy Flage / Devin Smith (78th)
9. Ryan Downey / Nick Burgess (40th)
10. Ryan Cooke / Kenny Hall (60th)
11. Michael Leitmann / James Roberson (20th)
12. Will Pinkston / Will Sayers (55th)
13. Kenny Hall / Ryan Cooke (60th)
14. Will Sayers / Ryan Downey (40th)
15. TJ McGaha

UGA 33 Wake Forest 12

Our B-side played well. We had to have uncontested scrums as we were short on props (mainly because our scheduled A-side prop pairing both ended up starting the A-side game) so both teams got excellent ball from the scrums all game, which let the backs have some good attacking situations. Nick Burgess scored a 1st minute try off a kick, well, several kicks of varying lengths, by Tony Niknejad. Tony converted for the 7-0 lead. Wake came right back with a try that I don't remember but my detailed notes say, "Wake try kick." Great, huh?

A few minutes later James Sapolu scored on a 50 meter run through the centers. in the 20th minute he did it again to make the score 19-7 at the half. In the 35th minute Alex Bourne scored on a 40+ meter run. In the 45th Wake responded with an uncoverted try. We finished the scoring on a messy by Gerald Lindo off of a Wake Forest lineout on their own 5 meter line.

We did a lot of encouraging things and several players stepped up again this week, but we need to keep working to get more organized as we got haphazard at times.

Man of the match: Tony Niknejad, in spite of the drop goal attempt, for controlling the match pretty well and letting the players outside him run.

1. Josh Mullis
2. Allen Revak
3. Justin Smith / Isaac Lee
4. Jason Kim
5. Alex Bourne
6. Devin Smith
7. Landon Guinn
8. Gerald Lindo
9. Nick Burgess / Ryan Downey
10. Tony Niknejad
11. Eric Marlowe
12. Johan Uribe
13. James Sapolu
14. David Jasper
15. Chris Etchells

 

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