By Aaron Wilson
Instead of manufacturing the fast start they had envisioned, the Houston SaberCats were stuck in neutral at the beginning of a key road match.
Instead of pulling off an upset victory over the defending champion New England Free Jacks, the SaberCats absorbed a 36-17 loss at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Falling to 7-4 overall and dropping to third place in the Western Conference division one point behind the second-place San Diego Legion and four points behind the division-leading Utah Warriors, the SaberCats were down 28-5 at halftime.
Their comeback attempt ultimately came up short despite outscoring the Free Jacks by a margin of 12-8 in the second half.
“I just think we were really turned up,” said Drew Wild, who scored one of the SaberCats’ three tries. “We waited for them to start. We just started off too slow. When you start slow, you get behind on points.
“In the second half, we were definitely better. We came in at halftime, talked things over and we had belief we could do it, but our errors shut us out of the game.”
The final points were scored by New England on a penalty goal by Dan Hollingshead.
Seth Smith scored in the 60th minute, and Wild converted the kick.
The SaberCats had a missed conversion kick after an earlier Dominic Akina try.
The Free Jacks were in the SaberCats’ territory 61.88 percent of the match, compared to 38.12 for Houston.
“I feel like New England does the little things well,” Wild said. “They kick really well. That’s the standard they’ve set. We have to drive to meet that and be as good as them.”
On Wild’s try, he dove on top of an open-field kick.
“I got pretty lucky,” Wild said.
Wild led the SaberCats with seven points and 13 carries. Jay Renton led the team with 35 passes.
Johan Momsen led the team with 12 tackles followed by 11 apiece for Pita Anae-Ah Sue, Marno Redelinghuys and Sam Tuifua.
Despite the setback, the SaberCats are remaining upbeat. There’s a lot of rugby ahead of the defending Western Conference division champions.
They are back on the road this week in a pivotal matchup at San Diego.
“It’s definitely an exciting challenge,” Wild said. “They’re another tough team in our conference. It would be a good way to make a statement.”
