It’s been a long time since a Bowling Green athletic team has been ranked No. 1 in the nation — 26 years, in fact.

This week, the BG Rugby team was voted the No. 1 team in the nation by both “American Rugby News” and “Rugby Magazine.”

After receiving praise from both magazines, the Falcons faced the challenge of hosting Virginia Tech Saturday, a team that dealt with adversity in the past but is back on the right path this season.

The Falcons took it to the Hokies, defeating them 58-7 in a dominating performance from beginning to end.

“Any time a program goes through something like this, they’re not going to be as strong as they once were,” coach Tony Mazzarella said. “They were a strong team. I thought they played better than the score showed. We just played solid defense against them.”

The victory was no easy feat, especially with All-American wing Rocco Mauer unavailable for the match because he is currently trying out for the United States National Sevens team.

The Falcons did not hesitate to score as they took the first kickoff down the field to the five-yard line, ending in a try by eight-man Kyle Bonek.

Freshman wing Max Narewski added two first half tries and lock Ed Luther and prop Dane Szente both scored a try for the Falcons.

In a completely one-sided first half, BG went into the break with a 32-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the Hokies, not much would change in the second half.

Narewski tacked on two more tries after the break, one from about 75 yards out.

Szente barreled his way past the try line from short yardage for five more points.

The Hokies finally put some points on the board in the final minutes of the match.

Not to be outdone, wing Jon Bill quickly responded by breaking free down the sideline with a try of his own to finish the game.

Despite the win, there are always things that can be tweaked or worked on.

“We’re just not all quite on the same page for an entire game,” Mazzarella said. “I think we showed flashes of what we are trying to do working out, then there are flashes of where we look a little discombobulated, and we just don’t look very sharp and that’s something we’ve been working on.”

Narewski led the Falcons with 20 points. All-American flyhalf Nick Viviani added five conversions and a penalty kick, good for 15 points.

The Falcons return to the pitch to defend their undefeated record when Purdue comes to town Saturday. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m.