The San Diego Legion came in to Sunday’s match having already clinched a playoff spot, but they came out and made known their intentions to win and clinch home field advantage. The NOLA Gold were playing for their playoff life, coming into the needing two points to secure a playoff spot. San Diego made several aggressive mistakes early in the game, including a scrum penalty that lead to three point NOLA penalty kick. Legion Scrum-Half Nate Augspurger “First twenty [minutes] was just us kind of shooting ourselves in the foot”. Despite several deep drives by NOLA, San Diego was able to keep NOLA out of the try-zone thanks largely in part to aggressive tackles by Nate Augspurger, Jasa Veremalua and newcomer Josh Furno.
In the twenty-sixth minute Josh Furno recovered a NOLA fumble and Jasa Veremalua tipped the ball in the air three times, but was able to recover and pass to Conor Kearns in what was ultimately the turning point of the game. San Diego was able to advance the ball to the five meter line. NOLA wasn’t about to give up easily as they turned the Legion away repeatedly for the next six minutes, almost all of that time spent in their own defensive zone. Coming out of a maul, Nate Augspurger feed Paddy Ryan who was able to punch through the NOLA Gold line for the first try of the game. Paddy Ryan “Nate Augspurger, like he’s been doing all year, put me through a gap, I get the try next to my name, but it’s his try. He did all the hard work. It was good to get over, I feel like it broke a bit of tension for us.”
Just five minutes later, Josh Furno once again created a NOLA turnover by picking off a Gold pass, tossed it to Jasa Veremalua who sprinted the ball half of the length of the field for San Diego’s second try of the game. In the fortieth minute, just before halftime, Ryan Matyas made a recovery deep in the Legion defensive zone to thwart a NOLA Gold response and keep them from scoring. The San Diego Legion would enjoy a hard fought 14-3 lead at halftime. Coach Rob Hoadley on the first half “We actually didn’t do so well in the scrum, which we thought would be an area of strength. We did make some adjustments there at halftime, Nathan Sylvia was absolutely outstanding the second half coming on at loose-head. We defended for basically the whole of the first half. We scored two try’s from defense from turnovers. You’re going to have to go through periods like that against tough teams.”
To start the second half, Louis Stanfill caused a turnover that was recovered by Nate Augspurger. Multiple brilliant plays by Paddy Ryan and a loose ball recovered by Nick Boyer gave the Legion great field position. Only four minutes into the second half Mikey Te’o was able to dive in from two meters out to cross the try line to give San Diego a 19-3 lead. Joe Pietersen who made the first two conversations, would miss his third attempt.
In the fiftieth minute NOLA’s Nikola Bursic would score on a turnover that would injury Mikey Te’o. Te’o would have his ankle wrapped with ice before being assisted to a cart and taken to the locker room. Legion head coach Rob Hoadley said after the game that it was a “ankle strain, it may not be as bad as we first feared, certainly working hard on him between now and next Sunday”. Joe Pietersen would make a penalty kick in the sixty-second minute to give the Legion a 22-10 lead.
The defensive play of the game was in the sixty-ninth minute. NOLA’s Tristan Blewett had nothing between him but green grass and a score, but JP Du Plessis would come from behind and make a try saving tackle inside of two meters. The tackle also caused a fumble that would be recovered by the Legion. JP Du Plessis would also cause a turnover in the seventy-eighth minute to help San Diego seal the 22-10 win and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The other story of the day was the crowd at Torero Stadium. The San Diego sellout crowd set both a Legion and MLR record with 4,175 in attendance. Coaches and players all praised the crowd:
“We’re just incredibly proud to have this huge home community support that we’ve worked hard to get all year, it’s just incredible playing in front of these fans.” - Rob Hoadley
“That San Diego crowd really acting as a 16th player which is very phenomenal for us was particularly good today and we hope that next week that everyone can come out and support us.” - Paddy Ryan
”The crowd was amazing, every time we had a break or a big hit or something we could feel the crowd behind us. We knew it was going to be a special day and the crowd was behind us all the way.” - Nate Augspurger
"The crowd was phenomenal we felt their presence the whole game. Cheering, blowing on those horns, clapping, yelling, the crowd we fed off that energy.” [On playing at home in the playoffs] “It’s a huge advantage, I think just thriving off the energy that they bring, when we hear that crowd roaring it give us that extra boost.” - Psalm Wooching
”It was amazing, I think we might have set a MLR attendance record, which is huge for us. And we’ve given San Diego a semifinal and hopefully final they deserve. Great atmosphere and great win for the boys. You could hear when JP made that try saving tackle the crowd got behind us and we were just lifted. It’s instrumental in our victory having you guys out here supporting us and hopefully we can bring it all home for the city.” - Nick Boyer
The San Diego Legion will be looking for another large crowd on Sunday, June 9th at 2 PM PDT as they face Rugby United New York in the semifinal. The Legion opened up the season at home versus RUNY and lost 25-23 on a game that came down to the wire. San Diego won at New York in April 29-19. Tickets are available at https://www.sdlegion.com/tickets-single-game/