Hempstead, NY - Last Fall, Hofstra University men's rugby routed the Vassar team 80-12 and in the two contests prior to that the Brewers lost. In fact, the last time Vassar won against Hofstra it was 2015. Few, if any, pundits would have banked on the Brewers in today's Tri-State Conference Small College Championship game.
Interestingly, on November 4th, 1948 the Chicago Daily Tribune ran the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" and on this November 4th they might have printed "HOFSTRA DEFEATS VASSAR" and been just as accurate!
Vassar College Men 47 v 31 Hofstra University Men
Tries: Bryce DiNardo (2), Justin Lederer (1), Samia Jaman (1), TJ Usher (2) & Kiran Mullen (1).
Cons: Kiran Mullen (6).
A chronology of the game would not do the game or the players justice, so let's begin at the start of the second half.
The Vassar team went down to 14 men when lock Will Smith was red carded for a high tackle. It was an accident as the Hofstra runner made a sudden change in direction and Will inadvisably used his face and the players clashed. The momentum of the game swung to the home team and Hofstra went up 31-19. There were many who probably felt that the game was going to slip further and further away from the Brewers because they were playing 14 against 15 and were now 2 tries and a conversion behind.
As it turned out, the Vassar players dug in and stuck to their systems while Hofstra changed their script. The result was a four converted tries Vassar scoring spree and no response from Hofstra. Even though this was a comeback of huge proportions, Vassar would have kicked themselves from Hempstead to Poughkeepsie had they not won today.
In the first half Vassar led for the entire 40 minutes and after taking a 12-0 lead with scores from Bryce Dinardo and
Justin Lederer, the visitors gifted 2 tries to their opponents. So, instead of being in complete command at the interval it was just a 2-point game with Vassar ahead 19-17.
The conditions were absolutely perfect for the players as it was dry and cool. The Hofstra field was lush with grass after all the recent rain but firm underfoot for the runners. Vassar's third try of the game was a well worked move from a lineout that was followed by a couple of determined runs and flanker
Samia Jaman went over. Jaman was like Mr. Gadget as he reached to score under the posts.
The encouraging aspects of the first half were that Vassar was able to go through a number of phases whereas the hosts struggled to get any continuity. In fact, Vassar had squandered a couple of good opportunities in that first 40 minutes and did not play particularly well.
Then came that second half and a horrible 15 minutes with the red card and conceding two tries. It's tough to play a man down but it seems that many teams respond to the challenge and the remaining 14 just got on with the job at hand.
Vassar's
TJ Usher scored to make it 26-31 and it came as no surprise to the Brewers for he had had a quiet first half and that was unusual! He really moves like a flea on a hot brick and generally makes the first tackler miss. He was well complimented by Benjamin Remy who again found seams in the Hofstra defense and sliced through a number of times.
But it was a team effort for sure and the Brewers tackled in pairs and threes when faced with the big Hofstra runners.
Kaiden Tocher dominated the lineouts stealing Hofstra throws and the scrum was rock solid. Both Vassar wings,
Phil Knowlton and
Ezra Potts, had good games while DiNardo at 9 was his usual darting self. He went in for try number 5 before
TJ Usher reintroduced himself to the Hofstra defenders.
Kiran Mullen put the icing on the cake with try number 7.
The result was in the books by 3:10 pm and
Vassar College Men's Rugby are the Fall 2023 Tri-State Conference Small College 15s Champions.
Team: 15 Kiran Mullen 14 Phil Knowlton 13 Benjamin Remy 12 Martrel "TJ" Usher 11 Ezra Potts 10 Olly Skeet-Browning 9 Bryce DiNardo 1 Benson Cao 2 Zhongia Hou 3 Justin Lederer 4 Will Smith 5 Joseph Goldin 6 Dimitrios Tzepos 7 Samia Jaman 8 Kaiden Tocher.
Subs: Luca Pereira Frears for
Joseph Goldin.
Red card: Will Smith.
Next weekend: National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Playoffs
Saturday & Sunday, November 11th & 12th, 2023 - Opponent(s) and venue to be announced.
