Old Glory is Playoff Bound after Win over NOLA
By Alistair Kirsch-Poole
Jun 4, 2023 - 10:55am
In 2020, Old Glory played their first MLR match, losing in a blowout in the Gold Mine. Fifty matches later, Old Glory came back to the Gold Mine and punched their ticket to the team's first ever playoff appearance with a 28-15 win.
The match didn't start terribly well for Old Glory. NOLA drew first blood with a cutting run and several missed tackles that resulted in a try. However, OGDC quickly turned things around. First, it was a try by Niko Jones off the back of a maul, then an overlap on the wing let Peni Lasaqa grab a second try, then another maul put Nic Souchon over for a third try.
Before the end of the half, both NOLA and Old Glory slotted penalties to bring the score up to 18-8 at half time. Every conversion kick had gone wide for both teams.
Scoring slowed down in the second half, although the pace didn't. The Gold generated several opportunities but OGDC was consistently able to hold firm and clear their lines. In the end, it was Kyle Baillie who scored next, finding a gap in the line and dodging multiple tacklers to make it into the try zone.
NOLA looked like they might get back into the match after being awarded a penalty try, which brought them within 8 points. However, it was Old Glory with the last laugh, as Marcos Young was able to cut his way past multiple defenders for a fifth and final try.
With the 5 table points they earned in this match, Old Glory goes up to 38 points in total, which is 11 points clear of Atlanta at 27 and 12 points clear of NOLA at 26. With only two matches left on the schedule, and therefore only 10 possible standings points available, neither team can catch Old Glory, meaning that our playoff spot is secure.
After coming off of a 3-13 season last year, improving all the way to a playoff bid this year is a massive turnaround for OGDC. It had congratulations pouring in from all over, including former OG Tendai "The Beast" Mtawarira.
What a season!!! congratulations @OldGloryDC @paul_sheehy10 @christodunlavey on your first playoff berth qualification, first of many for sure!!!
— Tendai Mtawarira (@Beast_TM) June 4, 2023
Go and win the whole thing 🙌🏾💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/c0P6i3G0Qk
Now, Old Glory will be chasing the two seed in the east, since that will grant them the right to host the first round of the playoffs. Their challenger for that spot is New York, who will be just one point behind OGDC if they earn a bonus points win over Dallas today.
New York and DC have very comparable schedules remaining, with New York playing Utah, DC playing Houston, and both playing Atlanta. Whichever team can have a better run in this stretch will likely lock up the hosting privileges. There is still a slight chance that Atlanta beats out New York for the playoffs, too, which would also secure the second seed for Old Glory.