March 14th, Detroit Tradesmen Tournament
In the Knights first game of the afternoon against the Wolves of
Michigan-Dearborn, Calvin came out and fought hard. Juinor 8-man Aaron Vander Meer started the scoring early with a spirited run in the first few minutes. Dearborn countered the attack quickly, putting a tryon the board themselves. Sophomore Fly-half Nathan Klingenburg put the Knights ahead before halftime with some quick thinking around the goal line 10-7 at half time. Dearborn came out of the half time break with fire and put a quick try on the board, putting Calvin down12-10. With some quick passing and great defensive presure, Calvin put 12 unanswer points to beat Michigan Dearborn-
22-12, avenging a loss to the Wolves last fall.
The second game of the afternoon saw Calvin play Oakland University, one of the knights biggest rivals. 8-man Aaron Vander Meer opened the scoring early with another great try, breaking tackles and running through any defensive efforts. Oakland countered with a try of their own a few minutes later. Calvin dominated possesion of the ball in the first half but saw it lead to no points as ball handling issues plagued the Knights all first half. Half time score, 7-5 Oakland. The second half started with Calvin scoring again and again and again, putting up 19 unanswered points with tries from senior winger Jay Leunk, Sophomore hooker Daniel Lee, and again by Fly-half Nathan Klingenberg.
The game that decided the tournament placed the Knights against Western Michigan University. After a sloppy first half that saw both teams make many ball handling mistakes, the match was tied 7-7. As the second half began, Calvin saw their forwards begin to dominate the game, moving the ball down the field. The go-ahead controversial try was put over by Senior prop Michael Bailey. Western argued with the referee that the try was not scored by the try was awarded anyway. After a brief counter attack by Western, Calvin stole the ball back with agressive forward play and marched down the field again. The deciding try was scored by winger Jay Leunk as the game finished with the final score 21-7.