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Binghamton Barbarians 31, Lockport Gang Green 36
Poets write about autumn glory, and NFL highlight films give us the baritone intonations of autumn thunder. It wasn't exactly a glorious day for the Barbarians (though the weather was awfully nice), but the autumn thunder part? Well, Lockport brought plenty of that with them. A man down for the whole match, the Gang Green played as though it was the team with the numbers advantage. It certainly had the weight advantage. All day long Lockport slammed its big centers into the Barbarian backline and gained huge chunks of real estate and, throughout the day, that tactic proved to be a trying experience for Binghamton.
The Barbarian forwards also looked overwhelmed as the match began, but they settled themselves quickly and the scrum became a strength for Binghamton as the game wore on. Another strength was the boot of fullback Jeff Devennie. Four-for-four on conversions on the day, and with a penalty goal thrown in for good measure, Devennie topped the Barbs scoring efforts at 11.
The match started with Lockport's big inside center smashing through some puny human flotsam en route to a bruising score. The Barbs drove down the field and, in front of Lockport's posts, opted for a penalty kick, which Devennie coolly slotted. The Gang Green responded with a second try, and then John Ulma, from a quick penalty take, juked his way upfield, offloaded to Devennie up the left side of the field, collected the pass back from Devennie and went in between left post and touchline. Barbarian forward Tom Confer found himself trucking toward the end zone as well, after a haphazard kick landed in the hands of winger Scott Carlin, who passed to Confer coming up quickly in support, and who continued his rumble for a try under the posts. Lockport scored two more tries and converted one for a halftime lead of 22-17.
The second half saw the Gang Green touch down two additional tries, this time both converted as the team's kicker found his boots just before halftime. With a seemingly insurmountable lead of 36-17 with only 12 minutes to go, Lockport looked to have the victory in hand. But the Barbarians made things interesting as fly half Jim O'Brien, rushing up in support of a broken play, collected a ball bouncing from the boot of a madcap mob near Lockport's 22-meter line to touch down near the posts. Minutes later, center Steve Rieben collected the ball that O'Brien's boot had launched downfield and touched down only a couple meters from the touch line. No problem for Devennie, who had the range and dropped the conversion over the crossbar to bring the Barbarians within five.
That, alas, was as far as things got, as Lockport settled themselves down, pressured Binghamton for the final few minutes, and then time expired with the Barbarians near midfield. The match won't go down in the annals of rugby history as the greatest match ever played, but it was a competitive clash that went down to the wire...so it was at least exciting for the couple dozen spectators that came out to watch the contest. Congrats to the Gang Green for such a mighty performance after such a daunting journey from the far north. The Barbarians, for their part, have a decent performance to hang their hats on and to build from, but will have to start that effort against the South Buffalo Thugs next week...
Barbarian Scoring
Jeff Devennie (Penalty - 3)
John Ulma (Try - 5)
Jeff Devennie (Conversion - 2)
Tom Confer (Try - 5)
Jeff Devennie (Conversion - 2)
Jim O'Brien (Try - 5)
Jeff Devennie (Conversion - 2)
Steve Rieben (Try - 5)
Jeff Devennie (Conversion - 2)