Poughkeepsie, NY - The transition from 7s to 15s this week led to the Brewers making some interesting offloads but there were plenty of positives in an entertaining game against an youthful SUNY Maritime College team. The visitors team comprised mostly freshmen and sophomores and Vassar was able to score six tries to finish solid winners.

Vassar College 42 v 24 SUNY-Maritime College XV
Tries: Hector Contreras (1), Jack O'Brien (1), Kaiden Tocher (1), Eli Schair-Rigoletti (2), Carl Aller (1).
Cons: Alex Papasavas (6).

Right from the outset the Brewers attempted to run the Maritime players from touchline to touchline in an effort to negate their usual strong physical presence in and around the breakdown.

Vassar flyhalf Carl Aller distributed to both his centers, Eli Schair-Rigoletti and Jack O'Brien, and the balance of hitting Rigoletti up the middle and then pushing the ball wide to O'Brien certainly produced a couple of opportunities in the opening stanza. Maritime struggled to contain the Vassar attack, giving away some penalties and it was following a ball that was pushed wide to the left by the backs that led to Hector Contreras taking a quick tap penalty and rumbling over. It may not rate as a try of the week but it was an important first score for the Brewers.

Alex Papasavas stepped up to take the conversion from wide out on the left hand touchline and coolly bisected the posts. In fact, the Vassar kicker had a perfect day from the tee connecting on all six of his conversion attempts. This was just reward for all the kicking practice time he has put in.

Vassar marched straight back into the Maritime 22 and squandered a couple of chances before Jack O'Brien was put over by Carl Aller. At 14-0 the Vassar team was in control despite some errors and missed opportunities.

From the restart Vassar kept the ball and first Contreras then Aller made big line breaks and from a ruck in midfield about 28 meters out flanker Kaiden Tocher picked up the ball and slipped between the two fringe defenders to scamper in under the posts. At 21-0 after the Papasavas conversion and looking at the stats with regard to territory and possession it was all sunshine and roses for the home team.

At the 38 minute mark Vassar was again camped in the Maritime 22 and Schair-Rigoletti, who was having an excellent game, was just 10 yards out from the goal line but he opted to throw a pass while being tackled. It flew up in the air, was intercepted, and eight seconds later the Maritime player had sprinted down the left wing for a try!

Vassar responded immediately and Carl Aller, who was being very industrious hitting rucks, making tackles, running at the defense and distributing the ball, almost went over in the left hand corner following a quick tap penalty. Moments later from a scrum the Vassar 8-9-12 combination put Schair-Rigoletti over for his first try of the day. At the half it was 28-5 with Vassar in the lead.

Maritime regrouped at the half and must have decided to be more aggressive in the rucks for they managed to win some ball and launch attacks. From deep in their own half one of the Maritime backs slipped through and suddenly it was 28-12 with still 35 minutes left in the match. A few more missed tackles and a couple of clumsy offloads allowed Maritime into the game. But at a scrum Tyler Harber took a ball against the head and it allowed Vassar to regain the initiative.

Jack Gibberd stole a ball at a ruck and looked to have scored in the left corner but was just in touch. However, Maritime was flirting with disaster as they tried to run the ball from their own line. Eventually, Carl Aller got the ball and despite running across the field his pace took him around the defense and it was another 7-pointer. 35-12 was a much healthier margin!

Vassar was back in control and there were some bright moments to savor. Fullback Kiran Mullen who is improving made a couple of excellent open field tackles and Benson Cao went undercover at a lineout and Maritime smuggled him the ball. Cao spun out of the mall and darted upfield.

Eli Schair-Rigoletti took a crash ball and ran a lovely line curving back away from the defense and with his brace now bagged it was 42-12. Maritime would finish strongly and the final of 42-24 was a fair reflection of the game.

Team: 15 Kiran Mullen 14 Zhongjia Hou 13 Jack O'Brien 12 Eli Schair-Rigoletti 11 Ezra Potts 10 Carl Aller 9 Bryce DiNardo 1 Benson Cao  2 Tyler Harber 3 Justin Lederer 4 Alex Papasavas 5 Dimitrios Tzepos 6 Jack Gibberd 7 Kaiden Tocher 8 Hector Contreras Subs: Phil Knowlton for Ezra Potts, Marcus D'Agostino for Justin Lederer, Mattheo Dwyer for Zhongjia Hou, Joseph Goldin for Dimitrios Tzepos, Rowan Roshong for Kiran Mullen, Caleb DiBartolo for Joseph Goldin, Mariano Decarvalho for Matheo Dwyer.

Next weekend: Saturday April 22nd & Sunday April 23rd, 2023 at the Beast of the East Tournament in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.