South Orange, NJ - The Brewers scored 6 tries and totaled 38 points, certainly enough to win a game, but conceding 11 tries is akin to self-destruction. Seton Hall made numerous line breaks either by running around multiple defenders, breaking tackles or bulldozing through tacklers. One silver lining to the day was that Vassar co-captain TJ Usher scored 3 tries which set a new school record for most tries in a 4-year collegiate career as his tally reached 56 tries.
 
Vassar College Men 38 v 64 Seton Hall University Men                                                               
Tries: TJ Usher (3), Anthony Kolesar (1), Phil Knowlton (2).                                                              
Cons: McCarthy Barber (4).

This was yet another winnable game for the Brewers. The season opener against New Paltz was there for the taking, the match against Fairfield went down to the final play and today this one at Seton Hall was a one score game well into the second half at 26-33. But the Vassar tackling was just not up to a basic standard.

Seton Hall took the lead 7-0 after some Vassar pressure had stalled and it was the outside center who burst through. Vassar responded well and within minutes had reduced the deficit with a good try from TJ Usher. At  5-7 it was pretty clear that Vassar would need to monopolize possession, be disciplined, and front up physically on defense. But too many times, the Seton Hall outside backs breezed through and 7 became 12 and then 19. 

Scrumhalf Anthony Kolesar dived over to ease the pain at 19-12 to the home team. But the Hall knew now that if they just ran strongly the breaks would probably come and they scored next to make the contest a 26-12 game. Neither team was playing very effective defense and another 2 tries before the half, one apiece, saw the scoreline at 33-19 with Hall ahead.

The Vassar halftime talk was all about players focusing on making tackles and when they had the ball to look after it and run with conviction. 

The second 40 minutes started well for Vassar as they pulled to within a score at 26-33 and then a second try made it 31-33. The Hall had been rocked but then went back to running hard and burst through to go up 40-31.

Vassar had shown the ability to score but an inability to stop the home team consistently. The Brewers finished with one more try to Seton Hall's 4 and that was the finale to the Fall season.

The team must focus on a strong offseason conditioning period from now until March in preparation for the spring. It is a good chunk of time to build some strength and endurance so the Varsity Weight Room should be in regular use.
 
Team: 15 Bowie Graebner 14 Ezra Feddersen 13 Asa Rosenberg 12 TJ Usher 11 Will Hamilton 10 McCarthy Barber 9 Anthony Kolesar 1 Phil Knowlton 2 Muhammad Muhammad Al-Shaebani 3 Ben Kaplan 4 Gene Waddy 5 Theo Rankin 6 Owen McManus 7 Miles Yum 8 Ken Kabeya. 
Subs: Wren Alger for Muhammad Muhammad Al-Shaebani, Yi Qin for Phil Knowlton, Cyrus Carlson for Miles Yum and Josh Maddaloni.
Injured: Marius Kruse, Finn Smith, Brandon Jones, Chris Jones, Sawyer Bivins, Luca Pereira Frears.
Unavailable: Rhese Fine, Alex Gough-Schnapp,

Overall record: 1-6-0.

Next: Spring Season 2027.