Sports
Men’s rugby completes second half comeback victory against Potsdam
By Kaitlin McCabe ’16
September 25, 2015
The Hamilton men’s rugby club stepped onto the pitch on Saturday surging with confidence.
Having just tied Plattsburgh, the NSCRO division’s reigning champion, 15-15 the previous week and improved their competitive standing, the men were assured of their ability to defeat Potsdam.
No doubt their intensity throughout the whirlwind of a match was a testament to their ongoing sense of accomplishment.
Though the team ultimately won against Potsdam 20-12, the game highlighted areas in which the men must continue to improve.
“We thought we might do better than we did this week,” Club President Matt Currier ’16 confessed.
The team committed a series of mental mistakes ranging from drop balls to poor throwing and accrued approximately 20 penalties throughout the game, but backs captain Andrew Leopold ’16 admits that while they were guilty of several mistakes, “at least we were aggressive.”
Despite all errors, Hamilton demonstrated their ability to identify weaknesses and successfully implement ways to correct them. Head coach John Joseph explained that each week the team seeks to improve by instituting new plays and “continuing to perfect the basics.” For instance, the team’s previously discussed backline strategy of keeping the ball in the center of the pitch rather than the side has certainly been a positive alteration to their previous methods.
“I didn’t know how much the game plan would be implemented,” admitted forwards captain Nick Ball ’16. “But sticking with the game plan seems to be working.”
Most noticeable, however, has been the team’s turnover strategies. While the men had previously struggled to effectively take advantage of turnovers, they demonstrated new potential within the first several minutes of play: Leopold poached the ball and then, with the assistance of Noam Barnhard ’18 and Dan Farina ’17, Joey Rokous ’18 swooped in the action and scored his first try.
All in all, John Bates ’16 said the team is “showing improvement in all facets of the game.”
For the second week in a row, Hamilton came out of the first half trailing behind the competition: Plattsburgh finished at 10-0 while Potsdam came out on top at 12-8. Instead of accepting their frustration, the men have both times used it to rebuild and continue fighting. By the end of the match, Hamilton dominated Potsdam 20-12. Rokous and Ned Kister ’18 scored a total of three tries, and Leopold put points on the board with one point after and a penalty kick.
“We felt really good about the team effort,” Currier said.
Arguably, however, the team’s victory came mainly from rookies' talents. Sophomores Kister and Rokous not only collected their first Hamilton rugby minutes but also scored the team’s only tries of the match. Each player demonstrated phenomenal runs (Kister nearly completed a hat track) and creativity (such as Rokous’s comedic, albeit illegal, substitution call during the second half of the match because he lost a shoe in the heat of what cannot be referred to as anything other than rugby passion).
“Fullbacks and wings scoring is good indication we are scoring as a team,” Bates commented, to which Leopold added, “it was indicative of good team play.”
Additionally, Noam Barnhard ’18 moved from fly half to scrum half just three days before his game, and the position seems to come naturally to him.
Coach Joseph also cites Farina and Javier Barreto ’17 as key contributors to the match.
Hamilton’s experienced players, however, stood out as MVPs of the match. Jeremy Mathurin ’16 took control as a forward with resilient, fierce runs.
“Jeremy is a horse: he plays hard, he ran hard. If he wasn’t playing, we’d be in a little trouble right now,” Bates said.
For the backs, Sam Copman ’16 unquestionably kept the defense solid. Potsdam’s outside center was the most intimidating player on the opposition, but Copman was equally threatening as he yanked Potsdam’s players onto the field.
The team will travel to face Paul Smith’s on Saturday, Sept. 26 and anticipates continuing on their trajectory of success.
“We are encouraged by what we’ve seen,” Currier said.
While we cannot know how the action of the game will unfold, we can predict it will continue along the team’s current pattern. That being said, the expectation can perhaps be best summed up in the sentiments of team cinematographer, DK Lee ’17: “The first half was pretty rough…but it was fun in the end.”