It was a chilly night under the lights in Piscataway, NJ as the fledgling USMAPS Rugby Football Club took on the Rutgers Black Death B side team. From the onset the USMAPS team was a little shell shocked and in awe as 13 of the starting 15 were taking the field for what would be the first game of their budding Rugby careers. Rutgers came out firing early scoring two quick tries in the corner but failing on the conversions leaving the score at 10-0 Rutgers. Both teams traded blows around midfield until the USMAPS forwards settled in and started a series of pounding rucks and mauls down to the Rutgers 5 metre line. With the weak side wing and scrumhalf committed to the ruck, the USMAPS flyhalf (CC Cobbs) linked up with the fullback (CC Harris) on a beautiful weakside take to score USMAPS first points in the corner. After the missed conversion into a cold stiff wind the score was 10-5 Rutgers.
On the ensuing kickoff, Rutgers put the ball in the hands of one the fastest men on the field (CC Whitler #14) who was single handedly mounting a beautiful attack before being viciously hit with a dangerous high tackle by the Rutgers open side flanker. After the ensuing yellow card, Rutgers was forced to play a man down for the remainder of the half. USMAPS took advantage of the man up situation. USMAPS clearly had the stronger better conditioned pack of forwards and with the man up advantage they began to brutalize Rutgers in the scrums and rucks until the loosehead prop (CC Frankman) banged his way through the Rutgers line for a try and knotted the score at 10 all going into the half after a failed conversion.
At halftime, the boys were told to look at the scoreboard and decide if they wanted to win what would be anybody’s game in the second half. They were reminded that rugby is a simple game of tackling and ball possession. With some minor adjustments to correct some lost ball in the first half and some subtle tweaks to the lineup, the boys came out firing on all cylinders in the second half. The pounding style was of concern for the Rutgers coaches who began to substitute their A side forwards into the game to try preserve a win. The fresh forwards were not enough to keep USMAPS from stealing possession from Rutgers inside their 22 metre line allowing USMAPS courageous diminutive Hooker (CC Chavez) to sneak over the try line for the opening score of the second half. Score 15-10 ARMY.
USMAPS took the ensuing kickoff and marched right down the field until halted by a Rutgers penalty at the 22 metre line. The USMAPS flyhalf Cobbs put a well placed kick into touch giving USMAPS a lineout at the 5 metre line. CC Goldstein had a dominating game in the lineouts, took the ball in the lineout and set up a text book maul. With Spencer #3, Goldstein # 5, Frankman #1, Young #8, and Bonnema # 7, driving a beautiful maul CC Mendez # 6 took the ball off the back to the maul for a well executed try. Cobbs slotted the conversion to make the score 22-10 causing looks of concern on the Rutgers sideline and enthusiasm and confidence in the fans and players for USMAPS alike. With a lot of confidence, USMAPS began to pour it on despite Rutgers funneling of 6 Aside players into the game. CC Young who played a very complete game at # 8 charged down a Rutgers kick in side their own 22 for the first of his 2 tries. After the Cobbs conversion the score was 29-10. CC Reichert # 12 had an amazing 65 Metre try off a deft Cobbs pass taking the score to 34-10. The refs credited Cobbs with the conversion however the unforgiving Rutgers score keeper failed to put the points on the board. The USMAPS coach did not argue the score since the game was well in hand. After CC Young # 8 score his second try of the evening off an 8 man pickup from 20 metres out time, could not wind down fast enough with the score 39-10 on the scoreboard and 41-10 in the referee’s book. Every man who suited up for USMAPS played a quality game. Solid tackling ruled the day.
#1 Frankman—Scored 1 try, played a solid game
#2 Chavez—Scored 1 try, nice game at Hooker
#3 Spencer—a big bruiser, pounded the rucks
#4 Meyers, W—solid game, hands in a few too many rucks, will clean that up
#5 Goldstein—Lost no offensive lineouts and spoiled a number of theirs
#6 Mendez— 1 try, coupled with the other flank played well
#7 Bonnema—Did exactly what an openside flank is supposed to do, wrecked havoc on defense
# 8 Young—2 tries, solid performance, good open field running
# 9 Dopico-very good job directing the Pack play
#10 Cobbs—3 conversions, made plays, put pressure on their backline, captained a good game
#11 Marcus—uncannily solid tackling for a winger
#12 Reichert—1 try, ran hard all game
#13 McCullough—good game defensively
#14 Whitler—had some beautiful runs and was just barely contained from scoring
#15 Harris— 1 Try, Solid game at fullback, no knock-ons, fielded all kicks well, and put a lot of pressure on their backline
Walcott- Sub at wing played well
Velez- Sub at outside center narrowly missed a scoring opportunity
Camp- Had good hands at wing
Marlatt- 30 mins at 2nd row, played well, will compete to start
Riojas- Fullback sub 12 minutes, tackled well despite running onto the field without his mouthpiece
