The Foothills Lions found themselves in unchartered territory and couldn’t find their way out unscathed.
For the first time all season in the Calgary Rugby Union the second division side was in the pole position only to see the Calgary Hornets rattle off 13 unanswered points en route to a 26-23 triumph for the visitors Saturday in Okotoks.
“It’s a huge step forward considering where we started our season at,” said Lions club captain Nathan Marquardt. “This is the first one we haven’t lost for ourselves and at any point, even in the last few minutes, it could have gone both ways.
“The Hornets are no joke, it’s one of the most well established clubs in southern Alberta.”
Despite the 9 a.m. start, the Lions charged out of the gate in their home opener at Kinsmen Field and etched their name on the scoreboard in the opening minutes.
Forward Tyler Hodgson provided the finishing move right under the posts on the strength of a beautiful off-load play.
Vice captain Jordan Smith would add a first-half try to give Foothills an 18-8 advantage at the break.
“That first half is the rugby we’re looking to play this year,” said Marquardt. “That early try resulted completely from support play which is something we’ve been focusing on, not letting our ball runners run alone.
“The momentum carried through the first 30 minutes and then it started to taper and we started to lose a little structure.”
The restart marked a change in the air. The script flipped immediately in the second-half as the Hornets were buzzing to work in getting themselves back in the contest with a try on the opening possession.
On the ensuing Lions kick-off, Foothills forward Branden Powell fearlessly ran into contact and recovered the ball for the hosts. Smith would swiftly find room down the right flank and off-load to a hard charging Matt Hodgson to put the ball down in the try zone.
“Branden and Blake (Barnert)those guys are awesome on the kick-offs, they’re really fast and tall,” Smith said.
“Even when we’re playing touch rugby, we’re always working on kick-offs all the time.”
The Hornets would not relent.
Despite several try-saving tackles and scrum victories deep in their defensive zone, the Lions were finally spread thin on a short yardage major for the visitors to trim the deficit to three points.
Calgary would convert on a pair of chip shot free-kicks after ill-timed Lions penalties to steal the 26-23 result and improve to 3-1. Foothills fell to 0-4 on the season.
“We lost on the scoreboard, but a lot of good things happened out on the field that I’m really happy about,” said Smith. “We came together and played our pod game properly today and when we did that’s when we really got ahead of them.”
Foothills gets right back on the pitch for its second home date of the season on June 22 when it welcomes Bow Valley to the Kinsmen Field facility for a 7 p.m. kick-off.
For more information on the Lions visit foothillionsrfc.org
