ST. LOUIS, MO. -- The Thunder Chicken's travelled to Principia's Saint Louis campus to play a friendly match with Missouri University of Science and Technology's (S&T) Miners on Saturday. With dozens of Upper Schoolers in the stands, and several alumni, the Thunder Chickens were victorious 31-19.
The Miners got on the board first, scoring by getting the ball inside the Thunder Chicken's 22 meter line and keeping Principia on their heels with a series of bangers before finally breaking through and scoring. Principia answered with three straight tries in the first half to take the lead at 17-5.
In the second half, S&T was able to capitalize on its time with the ball and tie the score. Principia, given the opportunity to retake the lead, ran seven phases inside S&T's five meter line but were held by the Miners and eventually committed a penalty and turned the ball over. S&T's kicker was hot for the day and easily got them out of trouble by kicking to touch. However, strong backline passing coupled with strong support from forwards won the day for Principia, as they were able to finish the game by scoring the final two tries.
With both team working in a handful of new players in the scrum, Principia had a slight edge and was able to win several defensive scrums by driving.
Tom Bisbee went three for five on conversions, including one near touch. Principia next plays on April 16th at 1:00 PM in Carbondale, Ill. against Southern Illinois University.
