Cleveland Crusaders Fall Short in Season Opener on the Final Play of the Game VS the Pittsburg Forge D1 Squad. The Crusaders came out with a lot of new and young faces on the top squad as the player retirement and work conflict has hit the team hard this year. However with the young squad the team came out hard in hopes of Continuing a 2 Game Winning Streak. After ending the fall season last year with a win over Cincinnati and a Win over Washington RFC in a friendly Spring match. The Crusaders were motivated and hoping to have turned the corner. The young squad start the Game down 7-0 until the Crusaders were able to take advantage of some of the Pittsburg Mistakes and move the ball quickly don’t the field and Punch it in with a center crash to score a try. Coming out of the Half at 7-7 the Crusaders Came out strong and were able to take the Lead 15 min into the Second Half off another Center Strike and Dummy move from about the 40 Meter Line. But the Forge battle back 30 min into the second half to punch in another try after several mistakes from the Crusaders. In the 79th min the Crusaders were able to punch in a Penalty Kick. taking the Lead 17-14. How ever it was not close enough to the end of the Game and the forge came storming back in the 45th min of the half to punch in a try and take the win.
The D3 Team traveled very light and took a loss falling 1
The Crusaders will try to build on this experience as the host the Detroit Tradesman at 2 PM at the Metropark Polo Fields. The D3 Side will Host the Cleveland Rivals Rovers at Noon.
