MONTCLAIR, NJ (April 13, 2008) -- The Vassar College men's team improved their record to 11-3 this year and the unlikely hero was loosehead prop Winston Clement. He scored 2 tries as the Brewers prevailed over a feisty Montclair State.
Vassar College Men 24 v Montclair State University Men 17
Tries: Winston Clement (2), Conor Boylan (1), & Jake London (1).
Cons: Jake London (2).
Vassar traveled to Montclair, NJ and faced an athletic and strong running Montclair State. The visitors had decided to debut their possible Fall 2008 lineup so the seniors were on the bench. That meant with captain Garrett King sitting out Clement was captain for the day and he responded with an excellent game. He toiled up front in the scrums and scored the first try as a lineout was driven over. Jake London converted and Vassar led 7-0.
The early passages of play saw Vassar running off the fringes and then moving the ball through the centers. Vassar's number 8 Davis Wang gave MSU food for thought as he picked up and ran from the base of the scrums. Had a couple of his early breaks been better supported a try was on. Defensively Will Thanhauser and Iain Gordon tackled and threw themselves around with scant regard for their well-being and it allowed Vassar to stay in the lead.
The second score came when flyhalf Conor Boylan intelligently slipped between two defenders and then wrong footed the fullback and Vassar was ahead 14-0. But after these two scores the game lost its shape. MSU managed to obtain some possession and poor tackling by Vassar raised their hopes. In addition, Vassar conceded a slew of penalties and that allowed MSU to kick deep in to Vassar territory.
In the scrums an early Vassar dominance that saw hooker Kevin Frodell take 3 against the head turned around and the set piece was something of a liability. The Vassar scrum was wheeled and disrupted and again MSU took heart. The home team scored and converted to make it 14-7 when their right wing broke two tackles and spun over the line. Moments later Rupert Johnson was yellow carded and Vassar was down to 14 men. Johnson was the victim of repeated team infringements for offside in the loose.
MSU made the most of their 1 player advantage and at the start of the second half punched over in the left hand corner. The try made it a 14-12 game. Vassar was stung into action and the forwards responded with some fierce rucking and then following a penalty and two rucks Winston Clement picked and dove over for a critical score. Vassar now led 19-12.
The rucks and mauls remained very messy as neither team really committed players and the ball was thrown around to runners often deep behind the breakdown. It didn't help matters that players also were losing the ball in mauls so possession alternated too often for any side to establish a pattern. Vassar kept up the pressure territorially and MSU's tackle count was rising.
From broken play Vassar's outside center Jake London cut back behind the forwards and scored a lovely individual try that made it 24-12. It seemed as if the game was won at this point. But MSU kept bashing away and made it 24-17 to set up a thrilling last few minutes. Vassar held on to win with some big tackles coming from Will Thanhauser and it was off to the bar-b-que hosted by former Vassar captain Charlie Williams '80.
Team: 15 Stefan Schwartz 14 Omar Fayyaz 13 Jake London 12 Nick Schmidt 11 Connor O'Neill 10 Conor Boylan 9 Garrett Montgomery 1 Winston Clement 2 Kevin Frodell 3 Rhys Bambrick 4 Dave Chase 5 Rupert Johnson 6 Iain Gordon 7 Will Thanhauser 8 Davis Wang. Subs: Dan Kalmus for Rhys Bambrick, David Fried for Conor Boylan, Anshu Uppal for Dave Chase.
Overall record 2007-08: 11-3-0.
No game Saturday April 19, 2008.
Next game: Saturday April 26, 2008 at The Big Apple Tournament in Brentwood, NY on Long Island 9:00 am.
