The San Diego Legion’s losing streak extended to four matches, the worst such streak in the team’s eight-year history, after they had started the season 5-0 and secured all 25 possible points. They’ve gotten just one point in the four matches since then.
Their 31-18 loss to the Utah Warriors came on the heels of losses to the West-leading Houston SaberCats, East-leading Chicago Hounds and back-to-back defending champion New England Free Jacks. It also marked the Legion’s first back-to-back home losses since they played at the SDSU Sports Deck in 2022.
“We’ve got some soul searching to do because, like I said, it’s tough,” head coach John Manenti said. “It’s tough competition and you’ve only got to be off a little bit and you’re gonna get hurt so, you know, we just got to work really hard on that.”
The Warriors scored 26 of their 31 points in the 20 minutes where the Legion played down a player due to two yellow cards to Charlie Hewitt and Tavite Lopeti.
Then Utah scored their only points with an equal number of players on the field in a sequence immediately following a failed lineout by San Diego which put the Warriors in prime position to score and was finished by flank Kalisi Moli in the 20th minute.
“We gave them some opportunities early in the game which was soft and, like I said, we can’t do that,” Manenti said.
There were some questionable calls made by the referees, including on a play that the Legion players had given up on that they wanted an obstruction call. That play went to TMO but it was found that there was no obstruction and the try was awarded.
There were also many plays similar to the one that gave Lopeti his yellow card for contact above the shoulders that wouldn’t have typically been called when refs find that the contact couldn’t have been avoided.
“We gave ourselves a shot at coming back in that game and if things were better managed, you know, a bit better all around, I think we probably could have come away with something from this,” Manenti said.
That was the overall sentiment from many of the players on the team. Captain Christian Poidevin went to the head referee on multiple occasions during the match looking for answers on the calls while his teammates looked in confusion.
“[There were] a couple of questionable calls that I don’t agree with but that’s the refs in this league, in my opinion,” fullback Ethan Grayson said. “I’ll get in trouble for saying that but that’s how I feel.”
However, outside of a 10-minute span late in the first half where San Diego scored their only two tries, the Legion couldn’t put consistent pressure on the Warriors and were constantly on defense as the Warriors took advantage of any mistakes the Legion made.
“They took theirs, maybe we didn’t, especially we need to get better at,” Grayson said. “Something we’ll have to continue to work on in training but it’s not for lack of effort.”
The Legion’s biggest threats came in the latter half of the opening 40 minutes when Jimmy Hokafonu scored in the 24th minute and Lincoln Mcclutchie scored in the 31st minute which brought the deficit down to just four points at the time.
San Diego managed six points in the 20 minutes that they played down a player with penalty goals from Mcclutchie in each half.
Up next: The Legion will visit Rugby FC Los Angeles, who they lead for third place in the Western Conference by two points, for their second head-to-head match of the season on Saturday, April 26 with kick off at 3 p.m. at UCLA’s Wallis Annenberg Stadium. Los Angeles plays on the east coast on Tuesday before they host the Legion in a two-match week for LA, giving them a chance to surpass the Legion before they play next weekend.