Vassar College Men 38 v 14 SUNY-Oneonta Men
Tries: Kyle Trumble (1), Cole Landolt (1), Penalty Try (1), Evan Roberts (1) & James Christensen (2).
Cons: Evan Roberts (2), Nate Cuson (1) & Penalty Try (1). 

ONEONTA, N.Y. - The Vassar men quickly established good field position and from a scrum 10 meters out they drove for the goal line. Picking the ball they won the battle of the close quarters and Kyle Trumble dived over the pile for a try. He may not be so lucky on another day but it did give the Brewers a 5-0 lead.

However, the excitable and exuberant Oneonta players combined to make the breakdown a real mess and there were not really any lengthy periods of continuity. It led to a stop start affair and with handling errors added in to the equation it was even worse.

Oneonta pressured the Vassar defense with some hard running and went over twice only to be held up in-goal. Vassar responded with some good phase play as the forwards ran off the fringes, picked and the backs bullied their way over the gain line. Eventually the ball was swung wide and Cole Landolt scored in the corner. A 10-0 lead was deserved given Vassar had a patterned attack whereas Oneonta was more off the cuff throwing the ball around.

From the ensuing kick-off Vassar again put together a series of phases and marched down the field. When the Brewers went off script is when things began to fall apart. Nate Cuson at flyhalf, having done a reasonable job putting his inside center through a few times, decided to have a run when a pass to Landolt was begging. Vassar was fortunate to eek out a penalty at the breakdown and kicked to touch. The lineout was not contested and the driving maul was never a maul so a penalty was given against the Brewers.

Oneonta was keen to get some go forward and with plenty of hooting and hollering they took a tap and went barreling up the field. Vassar did regroup and when they regained possession went into the Oneonta half. But after a few phases there would be an error or turnover like a knock-on or being tackled into touch. So some good work went unrewarded. At the half it was still 10-0.

The second forty minutes was also very broken up but at least Vassar could take some solace from the fact that on a couple of occasions  they made good decisions.

James Christensen scored two tries and was tackled high in the process of scoring another which led to a penalty try. Rookies were able to get on the field and earn valuable game experience. Certainly the Vassar shape was a cut above the opposition. Evan Roberts crossed after a quick tap penalty and te result seemed secure. Oneonta did manage a couple of tries and the main culprit was penalties that allowed them field position. Missed tackles led to the scores.

Team: 15 James Christensen 14 Norman Kuang 13 Cole Landolt 12 Rowan Roshong 11 Jeff Montoya 10 Nate Cuson 9 Evan Roberts 1 Mike Cardenas 2 Levi Tuck 3 Ali Sadek 4 Logan Ragsdale 5 Ankit Khosla 6 Brain Cuautle Garcia 7 Kyle Trumble 8 Joe Nowacki.
Subs: Alex Duchac, Chandler Shan, Tyler Harber, Liam Manion, Brian Santos & James Scarabino.

Overall record: 2-0-0.

Next: Saturday October 5, 2019 at SUNY-New Paltz, kick-off 12:00 pm