The Boise Bombers took to the air to travel to Irving, Texas for their final tournament of the season. Traveling together was a blast even if they packed us in the airplane like a bunch of sardines. Hauling seven quads, seven rugby chairs, wheel bags, extra gear, and our every day chairs put Delta to the test. We had the ground crew running two jump seats back and forth just to get us loaded on the airplane. But even after having to do it all again with the layover in Salt Lake there were no problems.
The first game of the tournament on Friday didn't go so great against the number one seed Houston Texans. We started off pretty good scoring 5 points to their 6 then we changed our lineup and lost 7 straight points. We are still learning how to match up and when to sub. The final score was a deflating loss of 55-20.
Our second game was our best match up of the tournament against the Chicago Bears. The first half was almost a point for point game with the exception of a few turnovers with the score 13-14 in favor of Da Bears. They increased their lead by 4 at the half and by 9 at the end of the 3rd quarter. We managed to battle back in the end to close the gap to 52-47 but we gave up too many turnovers early to get the win. We really need to schedule our next tournament with this team.
Saturday's first game was against the San Antonio Steel who lost their dominating high point player from the day before. This gave us some hope for a competitive game. And it was just that with two lead changes throughout the game. We had a 1 point lead coming out of the first quarter 11-10 and by half time they had it tied back up 22-22. SA had a 5 point run in the 3rd that nearly grounded the Bombers and they were on top 35-33 at the end of the quarter. The Steel had an equipment problem in the 4th quarter and had ran out of time outs, leaving themselves short handed on the court for about 2 minutes we had the power play on and got right back in the game after being down by 5 points. With 2 minutes remaining in the game SA was back in full force with the game going point for point while we held a one point lead. With 10 seconds remaining in the game SA was in scoring position and we got a 4 players in the key violation leaving us with only 3 players on the court. As the ball was being in-bounded by SA, Steve Baxter knocked a SA player through the goal line creating the biggest turnover of our short rugby career. We get the ball back with 8 seconds on the clock and Spencer Larimore in-bounds the ball to Josiah Sullivan and he held the ball until SA fouled him with 0.8 seconds on the clock. We got the ball back for another in-bound to our hero 0.5 Josiah Sullivan for the win 46-45 Boise Bombers! It was quite an exciting game.
The second game on Saturday was against the team that Spencer Larimore started back in 2009 in Texas, the North Texas Cowboys. The tournament was named after one of their star players, Matt Reynolds, who passed away just a few weeks before the tournament. There was a very nice memorial service held in the gym right before the game. After the tears were wiped away it was back to rugby, the game that Matt truly loved. Emotions were high and you could see it on each and every Cowboy's face. They got the best of us with a huge bench and all kinds of lineups that out scored us 64-39.
The final game of the tournament on Sunday morning was against the Edmonton Steelwheels with a ringer from San Diego and we lost 29-60. With the ringer they scored 8 unanswered points at the start. Without him we were point for point. Hopefully we get to play them again next year minus the "Ringer".
The first game of the tournament on Friday didn't go so great against the number one seed Houston Texans. We started off pretty good scoring 5 points to their 6 then we changed our lineup and lost 7 straight points. We are still learning how to match up and when to sub. The final score was a deflating loss of 55-20.
Our second game was our best match up of the tournament against the Chicago Bears. The first half was almost a point for point game with the exception of a few turnovers with the score 13-14 in favor of Da Bears. They increased their lead by 4 at the half and by 9 at the end of the 3rd quarter. We managed to battle back in the end to close the gap to 52-47 but we gave up too many turnovers early to get the win. We really need to schedule our next tournament with this team.
Saturday's first game was against the San Antonio Steel who lost their dominating high point player from the day before. This gave us some hope for a competitive game. And it was just that with two lead changes throughout the game. We had a 1 point lead coming out of the first quarter 11-10 and by half time they had it tied back up 22-22. SA had a 5 point run in the 3rd that nearly grounded the Bombers and they were on top 35-33 at the end of the quarter. The Steel had an equipment problem in the 4th quarter and had ran out of time outs, leaving themselves short handed on the court for about 2 minutes we had the power play on and got right back in the game after being down by 5 points. With 2 minutes remaining in the game SA was back in full force with the game going point for point while we held a one point lead. With 10 seconds remaining in the game SA was in scoring position and we got a 4 players in the key violation leaving us with only 3 players on the court. As the ball was being in-bounded by SA, Steve Baxter knocked a SA player through the goal line creating the biggest turnover of our short rugby career. We get the ball back with 8 seconds on the clock and Spencer Larimore in-bounds the ball to Josiah Sullivan and he held the ball until SA fouled him with 0.8 seconds on the clock. We got the ball back for another in-bound to our hero 0.5 Josiah Sullivan for the win 46-45 Boise Bombers! It was quite an exciting game.
The second game on Saturday was against the team that Spencer Larimore started back in 2009 in Texas, the North Texas Cowboys. The tournament was named after one of their star players, Matt Reynolds, who passed away just a few weeks before the tournament. There was a very nice memorial service held in the gym right before the game. After the tears were wiped away it was back to rugby, the game that Matt truly loved. Emotions were high and you could see it on each and every Cowboy's face. They got the best of us with a huge bench and all kinds of lineups that out scored us 64-39.
The final game of the tournament on Sunday morning was against the Edmonton Steelwheels with a ringer from San Diego and we lost 29-60. With the ringer they scored 8 unanswered points at the start. Without him we were point for point. Hopefully we get to play them again next year minus the "Ringer".
We ended up 4th over all because of the scoring differences so not too bad for our first airborne tournament! We all learned a lot at this tournament as we have all season and next season we are going to come out with some heavy hitting bombs! We also got the chance to meet our major sponsor Randy Smith and his wife Cathy as well as the customer support rep. Robbin from C&R Medical. They took the whole team out for dinner on Friday night and we had a lot of fun meeting them and the USA coach James Gumbert. We want to thank all of our sponsors for their help as well as our support staff and family that helped us on this crazy long trip. Go Bombers!
Click here to check out the highlight video and click here to check out more photos from Mike Peters.
Click here to check out the highlight video and click here to check out more photos from Mike Peters.
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