Poughkeepsie, NY - The forecast was not encouraging but at least the rain held off as the Vassar Men took on Fairfield University on a gloomy cloud covered day at Vassar Farm. In what turned out to be an entertaining match, the Brewers took the lead and never relinquished it scoring six tries to the visitor's three.

Vassar College Men 32 v 15 Fairfield University Developmental XV
Tries: Eli Schair-Rigoletti (1), Olly Skeet-Browning (1), TJ Usher (3), Gabe Slavin (1).

Vassar got off to a good start when after just a couple of minutes outside center Eli Schair-Rigoletti burst through to score to the right of the posts. At the very start of the game Kaiden Tocher looked set to catch the kick-off only for Gabe Slavin to jump and knock the ball on. Olly Skeet-Browning had launched the ball so high it almost sailed past Sputnik 1 and in fact all his restarts were good. 

The Vassar forwards really set out their stall early and the counter-rucking was to provide some good ball and more importantly deny the opposition possession. Vassar had a sweeping attack down the left wing but fullback Mullen cut inside and was tackled and moments later with the right wing wide open Mullen should have pinned his ears back and gone for the corner but alas he tried to side step and was tackled. It was a rough start for the young fullback as he had also missed the conversion.

Wing Phil Knowlton had another solid day making his tackles and he stopped a Fairfield attack when he poached the ball in the Vassar 22. But Fairfield did even the game when the flyhalf slipped a short pass to the blindside wing coming into the line. Vassar rookie Zach Prince was caught off guard and it was a try and 5-5 was the score.

Vassar exerted a period of pressure and managed to put phases together but there were handling errors from both sides and it was something of a stalemate for a while. That tie was broken when Olly Skeet-Browning took a quick tap penalty and ran with a good change of pace to score and Vassar led again, 12-5.

Fairfield seemed intent on getting the ball wide and also kicked be it erratically but they scored next when they just broke several tackles and ran straight. At 12-10 Vassar was reminded that everyone had to tackle and commit to stopping the opposition from running forward.

In the first 40 minutes the Vassar scrum and lineout had fared well enough so the priority was to stay on script and play good defense. But staying on script is not just a matter of running the team patterns but running them well. The one out runners were guilty of being too narrow and getting into the Fairfield backs was not happening frequently enough. There were also occasions when loose passes were thrown that caused chaos.

Fairfield had a bit of good fortune when they kicked through and scored eventually but they were held to the one solitary try on the second half.

Vassar's Zach Prince, who had done reasonably well in the center, was shifted to flanker and Ki'tsai Zangpo came off with a knock to the knee. That allowed TJ Usher to be substituted and moved into the center. The diminutive rookie is very nippy and surprised the Fairfield defense as he not only scored Vassar's third try but later the fifth and sixth! The last score was a length of the field effort after a loose pass was gathered and he took off for the final score.

Those last two tries were preceded by a good score from flanker Gabe Slavin who intelligently kept going when knocked down but not held. He showed real determination to get over the line.

Perhaps the most satisfying period of the match was when Fairfield kept pounding the Vassar defensive line late in that second half. The Brewers stood their ground and made a host of tackles until errors were made by the Connecticut school players. One such error led to an interception for Usher and a long run to the goal line for his penultimate score.

Team: 15 Kiran Mullen 14 Phil Knowlton 13 Eli Schair-Rigoletti 12 Zach Prince 11 Ezra Potts 10 Olly Skeet-Browning 9 Matheo Dwyer 1 Benson Cao 2 Zhongjia Hou 3 Justin Lederer 4 Ki'tsai Zangpo 5 Dimitrios Tzepos 6 Gabe Slavin 7 Samia Jaman 8 Kaiden Tocher. 
Subs: TJ Usher for Ki'tsai Zangpo, Ben Remy for Ezra Potts, Owen McManus for Gabe Slavin, Sam Shurin.
Unavailable: Bryce DiNardo, Will Smith, Leon Moore, Caleb DiBartolo, Jack Gibberd, Joseph Goldin, Mariano DeCarvalho, Tahmid Ahmed, Luca Pereira Frears, Daniel Wang.

Next weekend: Vassar College Men at SUNY-New Paltz on Sunday October 22, 2023 1:00 pm