Butler, Pennsylvania - The Bowling Green Men's Rugby Team (10-3, 5-1 MAC, 3-0 Nationals) beat Louisville (7-1 Overall, 6-0 MAC, 1-1 Nationals) in a 26-21 victory in the NCR National Semifinal after going to sudden death in overtime. BG now faces Tennessee (11-0 Overall, 3-0 SCRC East, 2-0 Nationals) in Houston, Texas in the final for the NCR D1-AA Nationals Tournament on December 13th, at 12 pm (1pm EST), at the SaberCats Stadium.

"It is always good to get the win even though it was not exactly the way we wanted to get the win. However a win is a win, and this is knockout rugby, so we don't really care how it happened. We did not have the perfect game, we got lucky with some of our mistakes and we left points on the board, however we were still able to get the job done," said Assistant Coach Austin Morris. "Credit to our guys for having the belief in theirselves to get it done. Credit to Louisville who played hard against us in every game against us this year."

Going into the semifinal match, there was plenty known about Louisville (7-1 Overall, 6-0 MAC, 1-1 Nationals). This was the third match between the two sides this season. The Cardinals bested the Falcons in both their regular season and MAC Final match up this season with a 32-22 victory. The neutral sight  and cold weather in Butler, Pennsylvania brought its own challenges. However, at the end of the day, the third time was the charm and the Falcons emerged victorious, booking their return trip back to the National Championship in Houston.

"It definitely felt like our scrum was just immense and an absolute weapon for us. I'm really thankful with how our pack worked this weekend. However, there were many things that could have gone either way and our effort was able to get it over at the end," said Assistant Coach Austin Morris. "So proud of the boys and know that this is exactly where we were last year. We are not content with just a semifinal winL. We know we still have a bad taste in our mouth from last year's final and want to get a different result."

They say that the third time is the charm and for Bowling Green that statement holds true. BG has faced Louisville for the third time this season and finally got the job done when it mattered the most. Bowling Green fought for a 26-21 victory over the Cardinals after ending regular time 21 all and four minutes of sudden death overtime. During the match the majority of Bowling Green's success came through their powerful scrum. Bowling Green dominated the scrums the entire match and gave them the majority of possession. The Cardinals managed to punch one in early into the game for a 7-0 lead. However, the combination of a penalty kick from Joey Apel and a Try from Grad Student and Lock Zach Szepiela got BG to the lead 8-7 going into the half. 8-Man Evan Holderer punched one in following the second half kickoff and Apel converted his second penalty kick of the game to see BG explore to a 16-7 lead. A blocked kick got Louisville back into the game to make it 16-14. BG pulled away with a try of a lineup to make it 21-14 going into the dying minutes of the game. Louisville capitalized off a late game error during the dying seconds of the game to score their try and conversion to bring it to 21 all and push the game to overtime. 

    In overtime, Louisville kicked off. Bowling Green recovered the ball and then set a sky-ball back for the Cardinals to put them under pressure. Bowling Green's complete effort throughout the game final paid its dividends. A poach from Club President and 6th year Kosta Anderson gave BG posses once again. Bowling Green snowballing quick successes and a breakaway from Center Owen Slimmer got BG within the five. Then the pack got back to work, a few pick and goes later and Flanker sub Harvey Harris got the major pick and go, falling over the line to give the Falcons the sudden death overtime victory and end the game 26-21. 

NOTABLES

• Falcons return to the National Final for the third time since 2021

• BGSU have reached back-to-back NCR D1-AA National Finals

Bowling Green (10-3, 5-1 MAC, 3-0 Nationals) will finish there the post-season following the 26-21 win over Louisville with the NCR D1-AA National Championship match. The Falcons will face the 2021 National Champions and 2025 SCRC Conference Champions University of Tennessee (11-0 Overall, 3-0 SCRC East, 2-0 Nationals) on Saturday, December 13th at 12 PM (1 PM EST) at the SaberCats Stadium in Huston, Texas.