BURLINGTON, VT (November 1, 2008) -- Under blue skies and on a day with brilliant sunshine but chilly temperatures the number 1 seed in the Northeast Rugby Union Championship, Middlebury College, stepped on the gas and ran out convincing winners over the Vassar College Brewers. Two breakaway scores by Middlebury in the first half were devastating blows to Vassar's cause and they never really recovered to be a serious threat.

Vassar College Men 7 v Middlebury College Men 66
Tries: Iain Gordon (1).
Cons: Adam Steel (1).

The Vassar scrum was solid and disrupted ball at the set piece. Vassar's hooker, Kevin Frodell, even stole a couple against the head. Lock Iain Gordon was outstanding in the lineout and Vassar was able to get a fair share of possession. So how is it that Middlebury managed to pile on the points? Well, the Vermont school was dynamic in contact barreling forward 5 and 10 yards after the initial tackle. They also had excellent team speed and allied this to ferocious defense.
And the Vassar tacklers were often too high which only added to their woes.

Middlebury was fast, powerful, direct, quick thinking and in the end analysis a good deal better.

Middlebury took the opening kick-off, went through 6 phases and then the fullback entered the line, sidestepped a couple of would-be tacklers and they were 5-0 up after 2 minutes.

Vassar restarted and defended well forcing 2 penalties, but ill-advised quick taps from inside their own half when a kick to touch would have yielded territory and possession ended in turnovers. Middlebury needed no further invitation and from one counter-attacked to go up 12-0 after 10 minutes. It was not looking good for the visitors.

The next 10 minutes saw both teams going through phases as Middlebury picked and drove through the forwards to good effect but Vassar responded with some good running off the fringes. However, Vassar was guilty of turnovers in contact and that led to Middlebury's third try. At 19-0 Vassar picked up the pace and launched a series of attacks down the right wing with the forwards doing well and making hard yards. Middlebury also gave away a few penalties and the forwards were pretty loose regarding the offside line. Vassar's Adam Steel missed a relatively straightforward penalty kick in front of the posts that might have given a glimmer of hope. It was very frustrating as Vassar again stole a scrum and showed that they could get ball. Then came a killer blow. Vassar was banging at the Middlebury goal line and after the forwards had been held up a few times the ball was swung to the centers where Ryan Keeble was hit hard as he received the ball. He was robed and 3 passes later Middlebury had scored a try that had gone the length of the field! Vassar had looked like scoring to make it a 19-7 game but seconds later it was 26-0.

Middlebury varied their game with box kicks and pick and drives when they weren't trying to get the ball wide. It paid dividends when they drove over from close range to go ahead 31-0.

In the remaining 5 minutes of the first half Vassar did get a deserved try from a set piece inside the Middlebury 22. Iain Gordon ran well having taken a pass from Connor O'Neill to go over near the post. In fact Gordon had an impressive game overall running well and being the best lineout jumper of either team.

The second half saw Middlebury do a very good job of counter-rucking. Vassar would seemingly be about to win a ruck and then the drive would come on from the opposition. Vassar also lost the services of Connor O'Neill as the flyhalf had to go off with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Conor Boylan. Middlebury scored 5 tries as the Brewers tried to get back into the match. Vassar had not lacked for effort but the tackling was too high too often, turnovers hurt, and credit the Middlebury defense for tackling hard throughout.

Good luck to Middlebury and their coaches Kevin O'Brien and John Phillips at the Northeast Final 4 next weekend.

Vassar has just 4 seniors so the side is young. This game will hopefully be a hard learned lesson in 2 years when these players have more experience.

Next up is the Spring Break Tour after a long off-season in the varsity weight room.

Team: 15 Omar Fayyaz 14 Adam Steel 13 Ryan Keeble 12 Nick Schmidt 11 Roku Fukui 10 Connor O'Neill 9 Garrett Montgomery 1 Winston Clement 2 Kevin Frodell 3 Rhys Bambrick 4 Mario Arthur-Bentil 5 Rupert Johnson 6 Aly Massoud 7 Anshu Uppal 8 Iain Gordon. Subs: Conor Boylan for Connor O'Neill
Overall record 2008-09: 5-4-0.