Saturday morning was beautiful! Plus 21 was the weather outside but it was hot at the Senter Park Rec. Centre in Irving Texas. The games today would determine a large part of the final standing going into Sunday the final day of the event. After a rough start to the tournament we still had a chance to end up on the podium Sunday but in order for us to get there we had to win both games today.
Game one was against Denver (2-0) who won both of there games on Friday. They dominated Kansas City who we lost to in our second game of the tournament by a large margin. Fortunately Richard nursed his injury the night before and was able to suit up. We where focused and determined to win. At the tip off we scored quick. We forced 4 turnovers in a row and was close to causing a fifth when Denver called a quick time out just as the 12 seconds over half was about to be called. Denver regrouped and we as a team had a melt down allowing Denver to tie the game by the end of the first quarter. For two quarters we traded goals and turnovers back and forth the game went on us up by a few them up by a few. The forth quarter however showed what Steel Wheels rugby was all about. We pushed hard and never gave up. Capitalizing on a few late turnovers, we switched to clock management and ball control. Edmonton finished the game knocking off the second rank team by 2 points.
Game two was against the host team Team RISE. Friday Team RISE (1-1) pulled off a upset by defeating the third ranked team Boise Bombers (0-2) by a large margin. We made it our focus to not take Team RISE lightly and to continue the plan we had against Denver. Skyler in the three games prior was 3 for 3 in winning the jump and this game was no different. We played hard and fast..but questionable calls by the referees and a couple of unforced turnovers allowed Team RISE to keep things close. After a tough first half we where up by 2 which was a little closer than we liked. The third quarter we cleaned things up. Jumping into passing lanes and forcing them to use there time outs. Slowly we started pulling away. Team RISE mounted a little comeback in the fourth quarter but we where able to take control and finish it out winning by the final score of 53 to 46.
We finished the day 2-0 and set our selves up for a chance to finish 3rd. We will be playing our friends from Boise on Sunday at 10:30am. Tonight..the plan is a well deserved team dinner and bed. Proud of these guys for digging deep, turning things around and putting themselves in a position to finish with a medal.
Game one was against Denver (2-0) who won both of there games on Friday. They dominated Kansas City who we lost to in our second game of the tournament by a large margin. Fortunately Richard nursed his injury the night before and was able to suit up. We where focused and determined to win. At the tip off we scored quick. We forced 4 turnovers in a row and was close to causing a fifth when Denver called a quick time out just as the 12 seconds over half was about to be called. Denver regrouped and we as a team had a melt down allowing Denver to tie the game by the end of the first quarter. For two quarters we traded goals and turnovers back and forth the game went on us up by a few them up by a few. The forth quarter however showed what Steel Wheels rugby was all about. We pushed hard and never gave up. Capitalizing on a few late turnovers, we switched to clock management and ball control. Edmonton finished the game knocking off the second rank team by 2 points.
Game two was against the host team Team RISE. Friday Team RISE (1-1) pulled off a upset by defeating the third ranked team Boise Bombers (0-2) by a large margin. We made it our focus to not take Team RISE lightly and to continue the plan we had against Denver. Skyler in the three games prior was 3 for 3 in winning the jump and this game was no different. We played hard and fast..but questionable calls by the referees and a couple of unforced turnovers allowed Team RISE to keep things close. After a tough first half we where up by 2 which was a little closer than we liked. The third quarter we cleaned things up. Jumping into passing lanes and forcing them to use there time outs. Slowly we started pulling away. Team RISE mounted a little comeback in the fourth quarter but we where able to take control and finish it out winning by the final score of 53 to 46.
We finished the day 2-0 and set our selves up for a chance to finish 3rd. We will be playing our friends from Boise on Sunday at 10:30am. Tonight..the plan is a well deserved team dinner and bed. Proud of these guys for digging deep, turning things around and putting themselves in a position to finish with a medal.