Miami of Ohio built a 12-0 halftime lead, but couldn't hold on. Brad Davis photo.
Congratulations to Muskego Rugby Alums Eric Graf, Darin Heinrich, and Nick Sindic for becoming 2010 Midwest Collegiate champs!
Originally published on www.rugbymag.com Sunday, November 15, 2009
UW-Whitewater has enjoyed its share of success in the past. "I've been thrilled to be able to coach this team this long," said 16-year head coach Pat O'Connor. "I've had a number of players make it to select side teams, and two years ago, Ryan Duclis was selected as an All-American, who then traveled to New Zealand with the All-Americans. For a division three college playing division two rugby, that's quite an honor."
However, O'Connor and Whitewater have never tasted the fruits of success they're currently indulging in as the Midwest DII Champions. After knocking off Miami of Ohio 13-12 Sunday, they have earned the program's first bid to the national championship. Whitewater's championship win did not come easy, as they had to fight back from a 12-point halftime deficit.
"They had two tries with one conversion," O'Connor said. "We missed a penalty kick early on in the first half, so that put us down 12-nothing. We came back, did a little bit better job rucking than in the first half, better scrums, and just battled."
Whitewater had never played in the Midwest final, and down 12-0 at the half, could have easily caved under pressure. So what was O'Connor's message to the team at halftime?
"That we needed to play 40 minutes of Warhawk rugby," he said. "We need to get lower on our tackles, and as they were crashing off the rucks, we need to commit to the ruck and take them back. Once we started doing that we were getting more ball possession, and not doing anything silly."
The Warhawks did exactly that in the second half. They held Miami scoreless by maintaining possession and attacking, thus putting themselves in scoring position. Fullback Miles Jopke nailed two penalty kicks to get them on the board early, and prop Joe Epping came through with a timely try.
"We had a lineout at the five, threw to our first man in the lineout, who just crashed through and got us a try, and then we hit a kick from almost the sidelines area. It was close," O'Connor said.
If you look at the scoring summary and say Jopke made the difference with eight points off kicks in the second half, O'Connor would be inclined to agree.
"He did. We've been blessed that he's had a number of good days," said O'Connor. "He's a senior, very good player. He had played soccer for Whitewater for a couple of years, but then we picked him up two years ago. He's been a contributor ever since."
Not only did the Warhawks clinch their first bid to the national tournament Saturday, but they also competed in the first Midwest Final Four in the program's 20-year history. Coaching Whitewater 16 of those 20 years, perhaps no one's enjoying the Warhawks first Midwest Championship more than O'Connor.
"It's extremely rewarding," he said. "Some of the alums came down to the match. I had calls from some of the alums from as far away as Las Vegas. I got a call from Kent Lowe, who founded this club 20 years ago, so we had great tradition and support from the alums, and those who weren't there physically were there with us in spirit."