West Haven, CT - This was quite the physical battle as Yale fielded a developmental fifteen against the Vassar Men in a game that had been preceded by the Vassar Women. The field was wet but fortunately the rain forecast did not arrive and in a close very hard fought match the Yale Bulldogs prevailed.

Vassar College Men 22 v 24 Yale University Men
Tries: TJ Usher (3) & Phil Knowlton (1).
Cons: Kiran Mullen (1). 

The opening stanza was witness to a host of hard tackles  from the inexperienced yet fully committed home team. Vassar went straight into a tight game and quickly became aware that running low would be a real priority. Credit is due all the forwards for staying calm and placing the ball well over that first 40 minutes and it paid dividends. 

In fact, it was Vassar that took the lead when TJ Usher, playing his first ever game at the scrumhalf position, outpaced the defense on the narrow side. He proved a handful all game and finished the day with a hat trick of tries. That said the second 40 minutes was a bit more rocky because the ball was not presented as well and he was caught or forced into errors.

Every Vassar forward was driven back in contact at times so credit must be given to the Yale defenders. It will be interesting to review the video and see if there were no transgressions by the defenders. But to a man the Vassar players stuck to their task and when Usher zipped over again the Brewers led 12-0.

The scrum was under pressure early but often, on the Yale put in, it was Vassar driving the Bulldogs back from when they came. Phil Knowlton, Zhongjia Hou and Luca Pereira Frears can take a bow for getting low and sticking it to their larger opponents at the set piece.

At the half it was Vassar up 12-0 and the team knew that they had to do it all again if a victory was to be gained. But Yale shifted the ball wide with more purpose and managed to break some tackles.

Yale scored and 12-5 was the scoreline. A second try levelled the match at 12-12 and now all the momentum was with Yale. But to their credit Vassar finally found some rhythm and Phil Knowlton scored to put the Brewers ahead 17-12.

Again, small errors and penalties pinned Vassar back and it was very upsetting because Vassar would create turnovers only to hand the ball straight back or be penalized. Yale took full advantage of the errors and field position was in the home team's favor. 

The Bulldogs snatched a try and then converted it to go up 19-17. Vassar was tiring and holes were beginning to appear in the defensive line. Another Yale try and 24-17 with just 5 minutes left left a glimmer of hope. The team kept getting penalized for coming in at the side of the ruck when they were counter rucking. It seemed very harsh and didn't really look to be illegal.

Vassar managed to break out and TJ Usher showed his class and got his third try and the team's 4th. But alas, the conversion from out wide drifted away and a 2-point loss was the result.

Kudos to all the lads for really giving a big effort and for hanging tough when the big hits were flying in from all angles. On the one hand there was disappointment as a win was within reach but there were also significant lessons learnt and therefore much to build on as the team commence divisional play next weekend.

Team: 15 Kiran Mullen 14 Ken Kaybeya 13 Marius Kruse 12 Caleb DiBartolo 11 Tony Mwangi 10 Ted Twitt 9 TJ Usher 1 Luca Pereira Frears 2 Zhongjia Hou 3 Phil Knowlton 4 Gene Waddy 5 Max Czekaj 6 Jojo Goldin 7 Samia Jaman 8 Kaiden Tocher. Subs: Caleb Joyce for Tony Mwangi, Miles You for Jojo Goldin, Ben Kaplan.

2025-26 Record: 1-1-0.

Next: Saturday September 13th, 2025 Vassar College Men at  SUNY-New Paltz Men KO: 11:00 am