Sunday, October 16, 2011

Big XII Champs

The Aggies won the first ever Big XII 7s Championship this weekend (Oct. 15).  Texas A&M went 4-0 against tough opposition, winning the final in dramatic fashion.  The win qualifies the Aggies for the National 7s championship which currently looks to be hosted on campus in College Station. 

The Aggies began the day with a 21-7 victory over a very physical Texas Tech team.  Tech was a very athletic side and scored first in the affair before the Aggies reeled off 21 unanswered points for the win.  TAMU followed up with a dominating performance against Kansas State in which they secured a 31-12 victory, winning Pool B.

In the semi-finals the Aggies faced University of Texas.  Texas has forged an identity as a 7s school and were really hoping for a win against the Aggies.  Playing the most physical match of the day, the Aggies completely shut down the Longhorns and spent virtually the entire match in the opposition end.  A&M was denied a couple of tries when one player went into touch before crossing over and another on a knock-on at the goal line.  However Brian Guillen's try (9:30) and conversion proved to be the difference in an exciting 7-0 win for the Aggies.  Guillen had a magnificent match, especially on defense where he shut down the Longhorn's main threat throughout the game.

Brian Guillen scoring one of his 5 tries on the day
The final was a thrilling overtime affair between the TAMU and University of Oklahoma.  The match began with a unconverted Tyler Gessner try (1:30).  The first half then settled and was a back and forth affair with the Aggies dominating most of the possession.  Right before the half, Oklahoma managed a pop kick over the Aggie defense, scoring a try under the posts.  The Sooners took a 7-5 lead into halftime.  Guillen scored another fantastic try (11:30) which he converted late in the second half.  It looked as if the Aggies had the match sewed up and just needed to win a lineout deep in Sooner territory when the unexplicable happened.  A&M was penalized for not throwing 5-meters at the lineout and OU took the tap and scored a long-try under the posts right before time expired.  The Aggies who had been solid on defense all day, missed a number of tackles on the run.  All the Sooners had to do was convert a simple kick to get the win, but miraculously the kick went wide right and the game ended tied 12-12.

Oklahoma kicked off in the 3-minute overtime period.  The Aggies wasted no time - Conor Mills made a line break fending off 3 tacklers before off-loading to a hard charging Matt Saladino who sprinted 30 meters for a thrilling try!  Saladino tacked on the conversion and the Aggies managed to avoid any other defensive lapses and walked away with the championship trophy!  This was an amazing team effort from top to bottom.  Congratulations go out to Brian Guillen and Tyler Gessner who were named the Aggie co-MVPs for the tournament.  Guillen finished the day with 5 tries, while Gessner had 3, and both had superb defensive efforts.