Poughkeepsie, N.Y. - It is still early days yet, and the room for improvement for this Vassar Men's squad is vast, but on a day perhaps more suited to a beach visit, the Brewers showed considerable grit and some composure earning a solid win.
Vassar College Men 43 v 0 SUNY-Oneonta Men
Tries: Hector Contreras (2), John Dean (1), Merrick Rubenstein (1), Bryce DiNardo (2), Alex Pappasavas (1).
Cons: Olly Skeet Browning (4).
The opening 20 minutes of this match was a knockdown and hard-hitting contest. SUNY-Oneonta came to play, and they made up for what they lacked in subtlety in brute strength. Their ball carriers rarely gave a thought to passing and ran straight and hard at the Vassar defenders.
To the Brewers' credit, they faced that early barrage and defended well. It was a real test, and while the final scoreline might suggest otherwise, make no mistake, this was fast and physical.
James Scarabino and Tyler Harber led by example, but the whole team showed how much they wanted to win by their attitude defensively.
Number 8 Hector Contreras scored the first two tries, and he was helped by his fellow forwards as they won rucks with good speed.
In his first game, rookie John Dean scored Vassar's third try, and he deserved it based on his defensive work in the first quarter, where he made a couple of crunching tackles.
The Vassar lineout had a couple of misfires, and the driving lineout was not happening due to the opposition not engaging. Then the team was penalized for obstruction in one instance and latching on in numbers. The fix was simple enough, and later in the game, Alex Pappasavas caught the ball and ran over for the try rather than set up a maul.
Merrick Rubenstein must have been watching Cheslin Kolbe for tips on wing play. The Vassar wing beat multiple defenders and was a real threat all afternoon. He scored Vassar's 4th try with some good speed and footwork from long range.
The backs still have to get their timing down, but they are all working hard, and it was good to see rookie outside center Bryce Dinardo get a brace of tries.
The spotlight inevitably has focused on the scorers, but this was a victory fashioned from good team defense and was more about the character and attitude of the players than anything else.
Team: 15 Carl Aller 14 Adam Vazquez 13 Bryce DiNardo 12 Darby Waller 11 Merrick Rubenstein 10 Olly Skeet Browning 9 Liam Manion 1 James Scarabino 2 Tyler Harber 3 Ali Sadek 4 Zach Neri 5 Alex Pappas 6 John Dean 7 Casey Draskovich 8 Hector Contreras. Subs: James Reece for Liam Manion.
Unavailable: Brian Santos, Kaleb Brabham, Charlie Chen, Duvan Aaron Lopez.
Injured: Rowan Roshong, Brian Cuautle Garcia, Leon Moore.
Played for Oneonta: Jack Gibberd, Dimitrios Tzepos.
Overall record: 2-0
Next: Sunday, October 3, 2021
Vassar College Men versus SUNY-New Paltz Men at Vassar College Farm, KO 2:00 pm
