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Golden Bears polish off their first undefeated season
Gallery
By DAN HINER
dhiner@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Timmy Bowser was questionable entering Friday’s game against Chaney. But Bowser scored twice to help the East rugby team to a 45-12 win over the Cowboys at Rayen Stadium.
The Golden Bears polished off their first undefeated season, finishing the year with a 6-0-1 record.
Bowser suffered a hamstring injury during East’s previous game against Northwest. He was a game-time decision.
East had a week in-between games to rest some of their players. Bowser had to sit out the practices, but ran and did agility drills later in the week.
“[I] did a lot of workouts with the trainer and just a lot of rest — trying to get it better and better,” Bowser said.
Christian Jones scored a try to put the Cowboys (3-4) up 5-0 with 27:51 left in the first half.
It was Chaney’s only lead of the game.
Nearly four minutes later, Turhan Hnederson scored to tie the game at 5. It was the first of 33 unanswered points by East over a 35-minute span to push the game out of reach.
“[Chaney] spread in more than they were supposed to so we knew getting [the ball] out to our backs and run out was the best thing for us,” Bowser said.
Elijah Smith scored with 17:02 left in the game to cut the lead to 45-12, but the game was already too large to overcome.
“For a full half and probably 15 minutes of the second half, we were right there in it,” Chaney head coach Bill Burton said. “East is very, very experienced. They have some of the best players in the state, hands down.
“And those guys made big plays.”
RaShawn Perkins made 1 off 2 conversion attempts for the Cowboys.
Sam Cartagena scored twice for the Golden Bears. Gilmer James and Hunter Mathie also scored. Mathie was 4 for 5 on conversions while Bowser was 1 of 2.
Last season, the Golden Bears finished the regular season with a 5-1-1 record.
East will make the playoffs for the second straight season. The Golden Bears won the Division II East district.
The Golden Bears received the seventh seed in the playoffs and will host Northwest in the first round on Friday at Rayen Stadium.
“I think [the teams success] has a lot to do with our newer guys,” East coach Timaira Gandy said. “Even though we had the split, we had a lot of leadership still here and we were able to give some direction and really lead the newer guys that had a lot of drive.
“Kids from football and basketball that we didn’t have last year came out and we were able to teach them the ropes real quick and make it worth something.”
Chaney has a chance
The Cowboys needed to win Friday to clinch a playoff spot.
Chaney missed the playoffs, but received the No. 2 seed in another tournament, the President’s Cup.
The Cowboys host the Crusaders in their first-round matchup on May 18.
Luck or skill?
Bowser set up James for a score early in the second half.
Bowser was about to be tackled, but found James streaking down the left sideline. He passed the ball around his head to lead James, who was inside of East’s 10-yard line.
“I know my team’s athletic enough that if I just throw it out I know my team can get behind it,” Bowser said. “But I’m not gonna lie, they kinda tackled me harder than I thought they would and I lost the ball.”