ON THE UPSWING
The Black Rose Rugby club has seen a great start to the 2008 fall season. First of, both men's and women's team have seen a talented new class of rookies come in. Their enthusiasm, combined with the experience of a a steady core of senior players, has made for telling successes on the pitch.

Tie
The lady Roses started the season with a narrow, one try loss against the ladies from Ashland. In a well fought match the only score for the girls from Ada came from winger Andrea Fiutem, who scored her first try in orange and black.

A week later the ladies played a home game before a spirited side-line crowd. After trailing by one try since the first half, a long stay in Kenyon's twenty-two ended in packy Erin Brandt scoring a close range try. The tying conversion was successfully kicked by front row player Christy Widner. The guests from kenyon did their best to disturb the 7-7 status quo in the remaining five minutes. Great try-line defense kept the two league points in the bag for a well playing ladies team.

Half centuries
The men's team also welcomed guests, and bitter rivals, from Kenyon college. Last year it was this team who gave the ONU boys their only loss in the fall, and therefor ended up in the top spot of the table. The first two games of the season, a season opening friendly against Marion and a big win over Ahsland (54-17), gave the men in orange great confidence. Last year's result was a one off, was the belief.

The resolve and aggression of the home team turned out to be too much for the Kenyons. Great play from the pack, and weak first up tackling by the guests, ensured possession throughout all phases of play. This kept the ball out of the hands of the well skilled, but underutilized Kenyon line. The Black Rose backs finished the job of, showing great speed and individual skill in scoring a total of 6 tries in the first half the match. The big lead gave coach Rugby Rob the chance to blood some new talent in the second half.

In the second fourty minutes the sides were more balanced, with Kenyon even crossing the home try line to score, after breaking through some uninspired would-be tackles. With scoring two tries of their own the men's team still established dominance, bringing the total score to 50-7.

B-side
After the A-side game, there were enough able bodies left to play a twelve against twelve B-side game. According to Rob, the ONU campus had not seen a b-side game since “like, I can remember” (it is left to the readers discretion to tie a exact time frame to this statement). As with the A-side game, and that afternoon's social, all the spoils went to the men in Orange.

Next
Next weekend both teams make the trip to Oberlin, Ohio. The ladies struggled against this team in the spring, but this time around they are surely in with a good chance of an upset.

Where the men from Oberlin have nothing to loose, sporting an 0-2 record, the opposite is true for the ONU men. In a shortened five team league, a win win this weekend would mean an almost certain first place and thus home field advantage in the play-offs.