The Warren County Lady Pioneer rugby team had a real battle on its hands Saturday as the team played host to the Tribe out of Cleveland.
Rugby is always a battle, but taking on the Tribe was more so for Warren County, which had gone undefeated throughout the regular season. The Lady Pioneers fought the good fight, but it would be all Tribe as Warren County suffered its first loss, 70-12.
However, the Lady Pioneers showed their resiliency and bounced back to win their second game Saturday against Columbia. Warren County won, 14-5.
In the first game, the Tribe was all business, and despite two early attacks by the Lady Pioneers who were dangerously close to scoring a try, somehow the Tribe ended up moving the ball back toward Lady Pioneer territory. Once there, they used their speed and agility to grab the angles that left them leading 60-0 at the half.
Despite the enormous gap they had to recover from, the Lady Pioneers refused to give up and scored early in the second half by sheer force of will as they entire team pushed through for a goal, giving lift to Alexis Aramburo who had possession to score the try, followed by a successful conversion by Warren County to get on the board, 60-7.
The Tribe got one more try but no conversion, 65-7, before the Lady Pioneers pushed back hard again and this time Abbey Bain made the try with a lot of help from her teammates, 65-12.
With time running down, Bain’s was the last try the Lady Pioneers would score Saturday, as the Tribe put down one more try, 70-12, before kicking the ball out of bounds to end the game.
“The Tribe has been a club for about 15 years and they have a class program,” said Warren County coach George Smartt. “They have five seniors on their team who have already earned $100,000 in college scholarships so that tells you what kind of talent they have. We learned a lot by playing a team like that.”
Next up for the Lady Pioneers is a game next Wednesday, April 19, in Columbia.