Middletown, CT - Despite a decent patch of play for 20 minutes in the first half, during which Vassar scored two tries and led 14-5, the Vassar College Men's Rugby team fell for the first time this season against Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon.

Vassar College Men 21 v 33 Wesleyan University Men
Tries: Will Smith (1), Martrel Usher (1), Penalty Try (1).
Cons: Kiran Mullen (2), Penalty Try (1).

This was another rung on the ladder to being a better team for the Brewers. Facing a slightly bigger and quite athletic Wesleyan University team is a precursor to future games that may be faced in postseason conference play. Unfortunately, Vassar had to learn its lessons the hard way and the result was a loss.

In the good spell of play, first year student Will Smith went over after several phases and Vassar led 7-0. The weather which was forecast to be bad with steady rain did not materialize so both sides had pretty good conditions for handling. Wesleyan threw the ball around and Vassar was able to catch them behind the gainline at times and therefore the Brewers enjoyed some good field position.

Wesleyan struck back and scored from a long way out and the ease at which they scored gave them confidence and momentum. But Vassar struck next with a fine line break from TJ Usher who sprinted in from his own half to score under the posts. Vassar led 14-5.

Another long range try from Wesleyan made it 14-12 and then the home side rode their wave of confidence finishing the half with another score to lead 19-14. The Wesleyan pack began to exert some pressure at the scrum and Vassar thus lost any platform for attack. 

The second half saw Vassar score one try to Wesleyan's two and while that was not too bad the structure and shape of the game was quite a struggle for the Brewers. However, Vassar had gotten back in the match with 5 minutes remaining and were only down 26-21. 

Then from a 5-meter scrum on their own goal line the ball was won and passed to the outside center channel but alas it was a wayward pass, possession was lost and with it an opportunity to tie the game. But if truth be told this moment was not the issue, it was the struggling to tackle that allowed Wesleyan to score five tries.

Getting set up and organized and then making tackles will go a long, long way to winning games. This week must see a big effort at the practices as we seek to improve.

Team: 15 Kiran Mullen 14 Phil Knowlton 13 Eli Schair-Rigoletti 12 Martrel Usher 11 Ezra Potts 10 Olly Skeet-Browning 9 Matheo Dwyer 1 Benson Cao 2 Jack Gibberd 3 Justin Lederer 4 Gabe Slavin 5 Dimnitrios Tzepos 6 Zhongjia Hou 7 Samia Jaman 8 Kaiden Tocher.
Subs: Will Smith for Jack Gibbberd, Ben Remy for Eli Schair-Rigoletti, Zach Prince for Dimitrios Tzepos, Caleb DiBartolo for Gabe Slavin, Luca Pereira Frears for Will Smith, Owen McManus for Kiran Mullen.

Next: Saturday October 14, 2023 Vassar College Men versus Fairfield University Development XV at Vassar Farm, kickoff 11:00 am