By Tony Brown
Head Coach

MIDDLEBURY, VT (November 4, 2007) -- The Middlebury touchline fell silent after just two minutes off this Northeastern Rugby Union quarterfinal when Vassar fullback Stefan Schwartz sliced through on the blindside and Vassar led 5-0. The home team regrouped to go up 7-5 and led at the half 15-5. But the final 5 minutes of the first half saw Vassar pounding the Middlebury line and the Brewers were unlucky to come away without a try. Some referees might have given a penalty try after 5 penalties in a row but it was not to be.

Vassar College Men 10 v Middlebury College Men 49
Tries: Stefan Schwartz (1), James Cantres (1).

The Brewers Fall 2007 season came to a halt this weekend as they ran in to a very tidy Middlebury team. But Vassar did not go meekly in to the offseason.

At the start Middlebury lined up to do their Haka and the Vassar team did what they always do before a game and circled up with captain Garrett King extolling them to play hard. Middlebury waited expecting Vassar to break ranks and face them. The Brewers maintained their circle. Middlebury waited until as the kickoff time came and went they sent ahead. This seemed to have rattled the home team as Vassar scored first and there was some bickering in their ranks as they lined up to face the conversion.

In fact the first 50 minutes was a torrid affair for the New England and defending National Division II champions. Up front the Vassar lineout functioned well and in the scrums Winston Clement did his usual number on the opposition tighthead. It was a very even first half. Vassar went up 5-0 and Middlebury quickly replied with a try of their own. Vassar's edge in the scrums could not be converted into significant gains because the Middlebury number 9 did a good job of harassing both Magnani and King at the base of the scrum.

Middlebury did a nice job of kicking deep and they managed to turn fullback Schwartz making it difficult to counter-attack. The Middlebury field also had huge areas of boggy ground that made it impossible for players to run. Middlebury scored a second try after some strong pick and drives from the forwards but were only able to add a penalty to their tally.

Vassar came storming back and laid siege to the Middlebury line. The Middlebury tacklers defended strongly but gave away a series of penalties. Six penalties were awarded in succession just 5 meters from the Middlebury line. Normally at the very least a yellow card would have been issued and many referees would have given a penalty try.

So the half finished with Middlebury having scored 2 tries to Vassar's 1 and a huge opportunity to make it a 15-12 game was gone.

The second half saw Middlebury score 6 tries to Vassar's 1 and 4 of those were breakaway efforts that didn't seem to reflect the battle that was going on between the teams. The Brewers certainly kept asking questions and although the result was no longer in doubtwith 20 minutes left they scored another good try when James Cantres crashed over to cap an excellent game.

So the Brewers finish 8-3 for the fall and will need to get back on track this spring.

Team: 15 Stefan Schwartz 14 Conor O'Neill 13 Nick Schmidt 12 James Cantres 11 Miles Fineburg 10 Omar Fayyaz 9 Chris Magnani 1 Winston Clement 2 Jeff Rubesin 3 Dan Kalmus 4 Nick Mason 5 Rupert Johnson 6 Luke Parker 7 Iain Gordon 8 Garret King.
Subs: Kaedin Jemiolo for Luke Parker.

Overall record 2007-08: 8-3-0.