Shock One Point Loss to Coast Guard Brings Men's Season Crashing Down

Author: Jack Donaldson

The long road to glory came to a premature end for the Middlebury Rugby team this past weekend, their bid for a national championship ending a few months early in a loss to old foes the U.S. Coast Guard in the Regional finals. The Coast Guard, a big and powerful team that Middlebury managed to control at home few weeks ago in the Northeast Territorials, pulled out with a 10-9 victory in the closing minutes on Sunday, in a game that was extremely competitive throughout.

The Regional championships, which were held at UMass-Amherst, were supposed to be merely a warm-up for the spring's national tourney, and perhaps that was a problem for the Panthers. A feeling of invincibility and power that had been pervading campus in the past week, emanating from several of the Middlebury teams still in competition this fall, might have affected the competitive drives of some of the players. However, Chris Straub '07 insists that this was not the case. "We played gutsy ball all weekend, we certainly took nothing for granted," he said.

Indeed, the team looked to be up to its old dominating ways in a win over Colby on Saturday, punishing the Waterville boys 18-5 with remarkable play coming from Ngetha Waithaka '04 and the dazzling Pascal Losambe '07, a back liner whose combination of strength and quickness is reminiscent of NFL back Ricky Williams, and whose poise proved promising for upcoming seasons. On the heels of its victory the team was eager for Sunday's battle.

However, the sun did not shine on Sunday, literally and figuratively. It was cold and rainy, a combination that played up to brutish Coast Guard's style of play, but not to the graceful finesse ball Middlebury has used to control tempo and the clock this season. Middlebury, at heart, needs to control the ball for the majority of a game, getting into the opponents side of the field and keeping the ball there, which they were able to do at their last meeting with the Coast Guard. They were stopped this weekend though.

"They are a tough team," said Straub. "We knew that from last time. We took one from them and they got us once. It's a good rivalry." In Sunday's game, the Panthers had few standouts, but solid play was exhibited by all members of the squad, both starters and reserves.

So while Middlebury's most dominant club team puts its dynasty dreams on ice until next October, perhaps the true story gleaned from this season - a season full of extraordinary performances and justly high expectations from the team and from fans - is the attention given to one of the sport's most exciting rivalries: Middlebury-Coast Guard. Hopefully these two teams will provide some more wonderful games in the near future, but for Middlebury, at least, those games will have to wait until next year.