BARBOS PUT OUT THE CHICAGO BLAZE 21-8, ADVANCE TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The active players of the 2018 Championship group. Left to right is Dante Brown, Eric Sykes Jr. & Estevan Crispin

The Denver Barbarians defeated the Chicago Blaze 21-8 on their home pitch in Lamont, Illinois. In front of a home crowd, it was the stone cold defense of men in Green & White that ended up being the difference in a hotly contested match. The Chicago Blaze led 8-0 for the majority of the match, but the Barbos finally opened the scoring through Dante Brown in the 50th minute. Noah Pflaum hit a monster conversion to bring it to a 1 point match. Down 8-7, the Barbos dug in and scored twice more to ice the game at 21-8.

It is the Barbos 4th straight play-off victory against teams from the Midwest Rugby Union. After last years monstrous score lines vs. Cleveland Crusaders & Green Bay Celtics, the Barbos didn’t lose their focus this year. A convincing score line against the Eastside Banshees, led to this final match up against the Chicago Blaze. While the Blaze were more competitive than the previous playoff match ups, the Barbos played ferocious defense and didn’t budge with the game on the line.

Collectively, the Barbos have outscored their Midwest opponents 232-49 in the last 4 playoff match ups. Last year’s team was built around fast paced attack, and put up more points than most … but this year’s team has a grittiness to them which helped deliver the win against Chicago.

The road to the title

The Barbos will square up with the Boston Irish Wolfhounds. The team travels to St. Louis in 10 days time to try and right last year’s story. The men are prepared, and have all opted into personal sacrifice so the team can thrive and deliver a national championship for the BarboFam and the Denver Rugby Community.

If you love this team as much as I do, and want to support these young men pursue the opportunity to play high level club rugby, be sure to donate to our team Go Fund Me. Every last dollar counts …, thank you for suppporting America’s greatest rugby club, The Denver Barbarians.

As always, Bleed Green.