Sports

‘Beastly’ ruggers

Men's club fourth in Beast of the East

By Erik Schnackenberg

Posted on April 28, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

The University of Maine men’s rugby squad came off a somewhat disappointing weekend at the Maine Cup tournament a few weeks ago but bounced right back in the Beast of the East Tournament on April 19 and 20 in Providence, R.I. The team went 3-2 overall and took fourth place out of the 32 teams that competed.

“Considering we only had seven guys from our starting fall team [competing], we definitely exceeded expectations,” said Co-Captain and Co-President Tony Purpura.

The team showed up to the tournament 30 minutes prior to their first match and lacking top players from their top-10, nationally ranked team from the fall – the team was without Eric Anderson, who sprained his MCL last week at the Maine Cup, Mike Groth, Chris Drozell and Sam La Rue. Andrew Higgins, who made the trip down with the team, injured his shoulder against Babson College on the first day of the tournament and was unable to continue play on Sunday.

The team’s first match came against Stony Brook. UMaine lost on a hard match with a score of 14-12. The nail in the coffin was a crucial and tough try from Stony Brook.

“We basically got off the bus and had to step onto the pitch,” player Jeff Dalzell said. “It was tough.”

UMaine, which only played in two games on Saturday, had their chance for redemption in the second match against Babson College. UMaine came out strong and never let up – showing no mercy while demolishing Babson 55-0.

Key tries came early in the game from Stan Watz, Ken Harvey and Dalzell to ignite the scoring extravaganza. UMaine, which had a lot of space to fill due to the lack of players, looked to their B-squad for help; Watz, Anthony Bruno, Tom Champa and Jon Myers stepped up to play in all five games and added strong play both on defense and offense.

UMaine opened up play on Sunday against Salve Regina University, continuing to show their strong defense. UMaine won the match on their second straight shutout by a score of 10-0.

Newcomer Tokuo Nagao added a try and a strong effort on both sides of the ball. Harvey proved once again that he is a clutch kicker as he hit an equally important conversion.

“It’s hard to put into words how much Tokuo brings to the team, he’s amazing,” Dalzell said.

Next, UMaine was to face in-state rivals Colby College. UMaine seemed unstoppable and impenetrable as they won once again with a shutout by a score of 10-0. The sole try was scored by Danny Purpura; Harvey added the conversion as a key element to the team. Ben Reichl had a physical game, blasting through the line and picking up good yards on several occasions. Reichl seemed to be a one-man team at points while adding good territorial kicks upfield.

Due to the loss on Saturday, UMaine was unable to play for the championship game but was honored by being asked to play in the third and fourth place match against University of Maine at Farmington.

UMaine, which lost to Farmington last weekend at the Maine Cup, was looking for a little revenge this weekend against the Beavers. Despite their vengeance, UMaine came up short by a try, losing 14-7.

“We played phenomenally, considering the lack of experience we came down with, I was pleased by the younger guys – they really stepped up,” said Higgins.

Purpura and Watz had strong games against Farmington.

“I was really proud of all the inexperienced players who stepped up big time. They really stepped up when we needed them to,” Purpura said.

UMaine ended up placing fourth out of 32 teams, adding solid tournament play to cap off an extremely strong season.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.