Rugby dominates RPI

The MCRC bounced back in a big way on Saturday, beating Rensslaer Polytechnic Institute 36-5 in the quarterfinal round of the Northeast Rugby Union playoffs on a crisp fall day in Burlington. The Panthers played significantly better against the Engineers than they did the previous weekend against UVM, where muddy conditions and sloppy play led to a narrow 10-7 victory, the closest of the season so far for the MCRC. Middlebury set the tone early against RPI, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back.

The Middlebury side featured a new-look backline due to players both returning and being unavailbe because of injuries. With regular flanker and forwards captain Rowan Kelner ’12 out with a concussion, starting nine-man Ross Berriman ’12 was forced to join the pack, while normal fly-half and backs captain Brian Sirkia ’12.5 took over for Berriman. Dusty Atwood-Dupont ’13.5 filled in at fly-half, and fullback Geoff Kalan ’12.5 returned from injury, allowing Allan Stafford ’13.5 to move back to his natural position of wing. Despite all the changes, the backline quickly dispelled any concerns the MCRC coaching staff might have had about the lineup when Stafford scored the fist Middlebury try of the day just five minutes into the match. Sirkia converted the kick to give the Panthers an early 7-0 lead.

“I thought Dusty did a really good job filling in at Brian’s spot, especially considering we really one had one practice session to get him ready.” said center Sam Harrison ’11. “Additionally, our defense in the first half was incredible. Although RPI was bigger than us at pretty much every position, they were hardly able to get past the gain line against us.”

Coach Muchadei Zvoma ’07 also praised the defense, especially Harrison’s tackling.

“Sam made what seemed like a million incredible tackles,” said Zvoma.

Middlebury’s defense, coupled with a scoring barrage between the 15th and 31st minute of the first half in which the MCRC added three tries, led the Panthers to a 24-0 halftime lead. Dane Steel ’11 scored the first try of his career for the MCRC in this period. Chris Marshall ’11, acting forwards captain with Kelner injured, added a try of his own.

The second half started much like the first for the MCRC, as Zach Bills ’11 added the fifth Panther try just five minutes after the second kick-off.

“The tries scored by the forwards were really big for us,” said Harrison.

After an unconverted RPI try 28 minutes into the second half which cut the lead to 29-5, Harrison added a try of his own in the closing moments of the match, which Sirkia would convert to produce the final score of 36-5.

“It was nice to get some tries from the centers in this game,” said Harrison, refering both to his score and a first-half try scored by Ben Cmejla ’11, the other MCRC center. “Most of our scoring this season has come on the wings, so it was good to see that we were producing scoring oppurtunities from every part of our back line in this game.”

With the win over RPI, the MCRC advances to the semifinals of the NRU playoffs. They will travel to Bowdoin, the host school, this weekend, where they will play Bentley University for a spot in the finals. Should they win that, they will advance to the Division II NCAA tournament in the spring and look to compete for their third national championship in the last five years.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” said Harrison. “If we can get out and play our game this weekend, we think we have a really good shot to make it back to the NCAA tournament.”