|
Life University had to scrap for it but they have kept their unbeaten start to the season alive with a tight 20-10 win over Potomac Athletic Club in Washington DC.
After opening the scoring with a penalty goal the Running Eagles surrendered two tries to the home side and an upset was on the cards with PAC in control at halftime with a 10-3 lead.
But the Blue Conference front runners chipped away at the lead with a penalty before converted tries to centre Steve Petzel and number 8 Mark Ayler ensured PAC would suffer their first defeat of the year.
LIFE UNIVERSITY RUNNING EAGLES 20 (TRIES: Steve Petzel, Mark Ayler; CONVERSIONS: Nolte Coetzee 2; PENALTIES: Nolte Coetzee 2) d. POTOMAC ATHLETIC CLUB 10 (TRIES: Dan Baikie, Matt Owens)
By Benjamin Everill
BLUE CONFERENCE
The Boston Irish Wolfhounds have kept their play-off dreams alive with a hard fought 20-11 home win over the Dallas Harlequins.
Coming into the match the Wolfhounds had suffered consecutive defeats while Dallas was fresh from an impressive comeback win over Old Blue but the home side stood firm to convert an 11-3 halftime lead into victory.
Dallas led 3-0 early thanks to a Vaughan Crowe penalty goal but Wolfhound centre Kane Jenkins scored in the corner soon after to wrestle the lead back and the boys from Boston wouldnnt relinquish the advantage.
Shawn Hibbard slotted penalty goals before and after the break and a first half drop goal to Conail Boyd extended the lead to 14-3 before James Gallo added a penalty for the visitors to get within eight.
Another Hibbard penalty returned the difference to 11 but the Harlequins werennt finished when Blake Rodgers crossed to bring the score to 17-11, within a converted try of another comeback victory.
But another Hibbard penalty thwarted the comeback and sent the home crowd into raptures as they claimed their first win.
BOSTON IRISH WOLFHOUNDS 20 (TRIES: Kane Jenkins; PENALTIES: Shawn Hibbard 4; DROP GOAL: Conail Boyd) d. DALLAS HARLEQUINS 11 (TRIES: Blake Rodgers; PENALTIES: James Gallo, Vaughan Crowe)
New York Athletic Club bounced back from their loss to Life University with a clinical 38-7 win over Charlotte.
NYAC raced to a 20-0 half-time lead and refused to yield as they pushed to a bonus point victory to once again push up the Blue Conference standings.
Centre Mitchell Dow crossed twice for the home side while fullback Dan Power claimed a personal points tally of 18 thanks to a try, two conversions and three penalties.
>Charlotte put some early pressure on us but we absorbed it and didnnt break,, NYAC coach Mike Tolkin said.
>Then we started to make some breaks and it opened the game up and picked up the pace of play.
>From there we took advantage and that was the big difference in the game. We were able to execute while Charlotte had trouble doing so..
After some execution issues over the first fortnight NYAC found their attacking mojo much to Tolkinns relief.
>It was really pleasing to see some cohesion in the side. We have some new young faces this year but the execution is coming along which puts us in good stead going forward..
Charlotte coach David Hamilton was lamenting his sidees attitude at the beginning of the match but remained hopeful the team would take some positives from the game.
>For us it came down to belief,, he said.
>We came to New York to play the defending champions without enough belief in ourselves and it contributed to our poor first half.
>I asked the boys to step it up in the second half and show some composure and thankfully they did that.
>They started running the ball harder and going forward and while the scoreboard doesnnt look good we have three home games coming up and if we play like we did in the second half then we should get some results..
NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB 38 (Tries: Mitchell Dow 2, Tim Ryland, Dan Power, Justin Hundley; CONVERSIONS: Dan Power 2; PENALTIES: Dan Power 3) d. CHARLOTTE 7 (TRIES: Vaaa Garrigues-Pula; CONVERSIONS: Mike Groenewald)
Life University had to scrap for it but they have kept their unbeaten start to the season alive with a tight 20-10 win over Potomac Athletic Club in Washington DC.
After opening the scoring with a penalty goal the Running Eagles surrendered two tries to the home side and an upset was on the cards with PAC in control at halftime with a 10-3 lead.
But the Blue Conference front runners chipped away at the lead with a penalty before converted tries to centre Steve Petzel and number 8 Mark Ayler ensured PAC would suffer their first defeat of the year.
LIFE UNIVERSITY RUNNING EAGLES 20 (TRIES: Steve Petzel, Mark Ayler; CONVERSIONS: Nolte Coetzee 2; PENALTIES: Nolte Coetzee 2) d. POTOMAC ATHLETIC CLUB 10 (TRIES: Dan Baikie, Matt Owens)
Old Blue from New York have come from behind to defeat Boston, leaving the home side winless from the opening three rounds.
Trailing 22-10 with 15 minutes remaining Old Blue started to claw thier way back thanks to a converted try to Owen Gregory before Mike Dibona crossed in the final minutes to claim victory.
The only heartening news for Boston fans is the side once again gained a bonus point which keeps them alive as far as play-offs are concerned.
OLD BLUE 24 (TRIES: Marc Fiorese, Owen Gregory, Mike Dibona; CONVERSIONS: Tom Drewe 3; PENALTIES: Tom Drewe) d. BOSTON 22 (TRIES: Kyle Marshall, Brennan Moore, Brendan Ridge; CONVERSIONS: Kyle Marshall 2; PENALTIES: Kyle Marshall)
RED CONFERENCE
Santa Monica fullback Padraig Cremin has nailed an amazing 55metre penalty goal after time had expired to give the Dolphins are heart-stopping 30-27 win over Denver.
Despite being hammered by three separate yellow cards throughout the match the Dolphins improved their record to 2-1 to celebrate their Club Dayy.
The Barbarians looked to have snatched a draw in injury time when Nic Johnson scored with time almost done but a last ditch penalty was awarded to the home side and despite not being the sides regular kicker, Cremin stepped up to be the hero.
Amazingly, it is the second time this year Cremin has pulled off a winning penalty from over halfway, having also done so in the Southern California Ganey Cup earlier this season.
The Dolphins were on the board early thanks to a Matt Sonter drop goal and a penalty soon after gave the home side a 6-0 lead.
But discipline became an issue when Eddie McKenna was sinbinned and the extra defensive workload allowed Mike Mangan to cross for Denver to lead 7-6.
Just before halftime Kelly Serfoss was also yellow carded but the Dolphins managed to score a long range try while shorthanded through Jesse Taylor to go to the break up 13-7.
Centre Mike DaRe stretched the lead to 20-7 early in the second half from another impressive Taylor run before Denver tied things up with two tries and a penalty.
With just over 10 minutes remaining Serfoss poached the ball from the Barbarians and raced 80 metres to score what looked likely to be a match winning play but when Charlie Vaaai became the third Dolphin yellow card the Barbarians sniffed a chance.
Johnson scored his try to tie things up but celebrations were premature as Cremin became the toast of Santa Monica.
>It was an exciting contest and weere very happy to have won considering we havennt played our best rugby yet,, Santa Monica coach Doug Bratcher said.
>We have some discipline problems but we were able to get the win which is good..
For Denver the trip wasnnt a total loss as they picked up two bonus points.
SANTA MONICA 30 (TRIES: Jesse Taylor, Mike DaRe, Kelly Serfoss; CONVERSIONS: Matt Sonter 3; PENALTIES: Matt Sonter, Padraig Cremin; DROP GOALS: Matt Sonter)d. DENVER BARBARIANS 27 (TRIES: Mike Mangan, Dan Murphy, Adam Currie, Nic Johnson; CONVERSIONS: David Laidlaw 2; PENALTIES: David Laidlaw)
San Francisco rebounded back into the winners circle and all but ended the Chicago Griffins dreams with a 31-14 win in Chicago.
After being beaten by Belmont Shore last weekend Golden Gate had secured a bonus point before halftime as they raced to a 24-0 lead with the help of a healthy breeze.
The winless Griffins fought hard in the second half and clawed their way back to 24-14 with 15 minutes remaining before a long range try snuffed out their comeback and consigned them to the bottom of the Red Conference.
>It was a good game for us to get back on track,, San Francisco coach Paul Keeler said.
>The boys were down after last weeks result but they turned up ready to play and put in an impressive first half. Our second half may not have been as convincing but we were able to come to Chicago and leave with a bonus point win so weere happy..
For Griffins coach Wez Parkes the loss was another disappointing result. The side was just a touch off the pace but despite their dire ladder position, he refused to concede the season was a wipe-out.
>We played into the wind in the first half so we knew we had to concentrate on containment so we could then build a score with the breeze in the second half,, Parkes said.
>But we suffered from poor ball security and it allowed San Francisco to post four tries and take a healthy lead.
>The boys did fight back well though and had put on two well constructed tries to be down by just 10 with 15 minutes remaining before a very good Golden Gate breakaway try killed us off.
>Itts disappointing to be 0-3 but we have no excuses. We know it will be extremely tough to be involved in the finals now but weere not giving up. We will probably need results to go our way but first things first we need to get our first win and weell be heading to Seattle looking for it..
SAN FRANCISCO GOLDEN GATE 31 (TRIES: Daryl Lamborn, Josh Vavao, Danny La Prevotte, Faimalo Tapui, Sam Monoa; CONVERSIONS: Volney Rouse 3) d. CHICAGO GRIFFINS 14 (TRIES: Jon Tenconi, Dave Whelan; CONVERSIONS: Trent Garrett 2)
The Chicago Lions have pummelled Old Puget Sound Beach 48-10 in Chicago to remain at the top of the Red Conference.
The Lions scored seven tries to one in the shellacking to gain maximum points.
>The game got away from us,, OPSB coach Evan Haigh admitted.
>They certainly showed us how to play rugby at this level. We must step up a whole other level if we are to compete..
CHICAGO LIONS 48 (TRIES: Nate Ellis 2, Tom Dolan, Mark Roberts, Ben Purcell, Chad Slaby, Nogaj; CONVERSIONS: Josh Cocking 5; PENALTIES: Josh Cocking) d. OLD PUGET SOUND BEACH 10 (TRIES: Nolan Allen; CONVERSIONS: Evan Haigh; PENALTIES: Evan Haigh)
Belmont Shore came back from a 17-6 half time deficit to defeat fierce southern California rival OMBAC 25-22.
Sinipati Uiagalelei was the two try hero for Belmont, scoring the go ahead try with just eight minutes left in the match.
The result pushes Belmont into second place while OMBAC are now sixth.
BELMONT SHORE 25 (TRIES: Sinipati Uiagalelei 2, Peter Sio; CONVERSIONS: Ata Malifa 2; PENALTIES: Ata Malifa 2) d. OMBAC 22 (Riaan Hamilton 2, Nick Hawkins; CONVERSIONS: Sam Gonzales 2; PENALTIES: Sam Gonzales)
|
Welcome, today is 9/6/2010. PAC Hotline: 202-659-9414 Email: info@PACRugby.com
