The focus all season has been to get consistency with the few things that this young team is doing in practice. The Vassar Men did achieve a measure of success in attack today, and it was very timely for they took a step back in terms of defense. Too many tackles were missed, and the line speed was pedestrian. The latter was so slow at times that it was like watching the cemetery scene from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" when Joe (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli Wallach), and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) stare each other down. Would that there had been the same suspense courtesy of Ennio Morricone's music score!
Vassar College Men 52 v 22 SUNY-Oneonta Men
Tries: Trevor Kennish (3), Seamus Taylor (2), Charlie Hoghkirk (1), Nick Olkovsky (1) & Joe Griffen (1).
Cons: Trevor Kennish (6).
Vassar scrumhalf Trevor Kennish was in good form on this blustery cold fall afternoon. The Vassar number 9 scored 3 tries in the first 25 minutes, converting two of them, and Vassar led 19-0. Two of the tries came about as he alertly tapped and took off when the Oneonta forwards transgressed. The quick ruck ball produced by the Vassar forwards caught the Oneonta fringe defenders off-side and Kennish was the beneficiary.
Vassar had wrapped up the bonus point 4
th try just before halftime when
Seamus Taylor was in support of a breakout from defense that he had initiated. Much like the week before Taylor burst upfield before linking with Joe Simon. However, this week Simon was caught from behind but he offloaded to Dawkin Erceg, the freshman having run well in support, who in turn gave the scoring pass to Taylor. The try was the perfect riposte to an Oneonta score that had made it 19-7. Kennish's kicking from the tee was spot on as he connected on this one making it 26-7 after 40 minutes. In fact, Kennish was 6 of 8 overall in what were difficult kicking conditions.
Oneonta further compounded their plight when one its players received a red card. It meant that they played the entire second half with 14 men, and at one point, they were down to 13 when another yellow card was issued.
But Oneonta showed that given an opportunity they could run. From a scrum in their own 22 some poor defense allowed the scrumhalf to dart upfield. He linked and after a couple of phases Oneonta had scored to make it 26-12. Vassar could not afford to give up easy tries like this or it would be a dog fight.
The next 10 minutes was not pretty with Vassar falling off tackles and Oneonta making inroads. The offloading of the upstate school led to a very broken field and somewhat chaotic style of game. A host of Vassar players were guilty of missing tackles or making contact and then not holding the tackle.
But a try from Vassar's debutant flanker Charlie Hooghkirk was the next score and a 33-12 lead was established. Oneonta made it 33-15 when they opted to kick a penalty about
10 minutes later but the visitors really needed to score tries if they were to earn a win or get a bonus point so it seemed an odd decision.
As the road team tired and Vassar enjoyed the advantage of the extra man the gaps opened up.
Seamus Taylor who had a solid game went over and he was followed by Nick Olkovsky and it was 47 points although Oneonta collected another try to make it 47-22.
It was freshman fullback Joe Griffen who finished the day off with a scintillating 75 yard run to score. It was Vassar's 8
th try and a final score of 52-22 was in the books. Griffen does need to vastly improve his defense for he was one of the many guilty of slipping around a ball carrier!
Team: 15 Joe Griffen 14 Stephen Kpundeh 13 Joe Simon 12 Seamus Taylor 11 Dawkin Erceg 10 Nick Olkovsky 9 Trevor Kennish 1 Louie Brown 2 Evan Roberts 3 Ankit Khosla 4 Nick Crooks 5 Anthony Varghese 6 Anthony Brown 7 Charlie Hooghkirk 8 Rob Eder
Subs: Reese Guo for Joe Simon, Gino Ruiz for Anthony Brown & Ghali Khalil for Nick Crooks.
Overall record: 5-0-0
Next week: Sunday October 16th, 2016 at SUNY-New Paltz - Kickoff 11:00 a.m.
