Christian Mentzer charges up field with Evan Rourke in support.
In perhaps one of their best outings of the season, The University of Michigan Rugby Football Club took 3rd place in the Big Ten East Division after beating rival, Michigan State, 33-22. The two met in the first week of Big Ten play and MSU came out on top. This time around, however, Michigan’s controlled forward play opened up plenty of space for the Michigan backs to run in five tries.
Michigan’s Kenny Andutan breaks one tackle and braces for the next.
For the first game since Purdue, Michigan’s offense succeeded in generating more points in the first half. Just four minutes into the game, a Michigan State penalty set up Michigan’s Nick Lazurka on the outside for a score. Michigan State was able to hang in the game for the first half, but was never able to gain the lead at any point. In the 20th minute, Michigan fly half, Grady Bridges, found a gap off the side of a ruck on MSU’s 22 meter line and ran it in for Michigan’s second score. Bridges would go on to convert his try and make 4 of 5 conversions for the day. In the final seconds of the first half, Lazurka ran around several State defenders from Michigan’s own 22 for a beautiful try to make the half-time score 19-12 in favor of Michigan. Michigan State’s frustrations from limited offensive production due to a relentless Michigan press became evident in their two first half yellow cards.
Michigan State defenders line up to take down Michigan prop, Jordan Ulmer.
With the senior’s last home match on the line, a fired-up Michigan squad quickly put State away. In the 56th minute, Sequoyah Burke-Combs returned an MSU kick right down the center of the field nearly untouched. Eight minutes later, a long run by Christian Mentzer set up Grady Bridges for a try to give Michigan their largest lead of 33-12 with just ten minutes to play.
Shaking hands after the match.
Michigan’s next match will be at the Big Ten Sevens Tournament on November 10th in Columbus, Ohio.
1. Brennan Arnett (Bishar 57′)
2. Evan Rourke
3. Jordan Ulmer
4. Matt Pilon (Van Harn 55′)
5. Drew Vecchio (Starkweather 47’)
6. Dave Hiltzik
7. Kenny Andutan (Scolnick 64′)
8. Mike LaCivita
9. Chris Padmos
10. Grady Bridges
11. Sequoyah Burke-Combs (Borowski 74’)
12. Christian Mentzer
13. Jared Bosma
14. Nick Lazurka
15. Joel Conzelmann
16. Pete Melgren
17. Nelson Worner
18. Sergio Rocha
19. Cole Van Harn
20. Spencer Scolnick
21. John Palladino
22. Terence Taylor
Tries: Lazurka 4′, 40′, Bridges 20′, 64′, Burke-Combs 56′
Conversions: Bridges 4′, 20′, 56′, 64′
Killer Bees in the scrum.
The Killer Bees, who handled State’s B-side 38-0 in the last meeting, had another great day on both sides of the ball.
Michigan’s Evan Noon started the scoring first after fifteen minutes of play when he found a huge gap in a staggered MSU defense. The UMRFC then had a forgettable few minutes of play where State managed to score two tries. One in the 34th minute came from a strong forward crash just outside the try zone and the other a back broke the line at midfield. The Killer Bees recovered well following a try by prop, Nelson Worner, who picked the ball from a ruck and charged into the try zone to tie the score at 12 as the first half expired. Fly half, Evan Noon, kicked the conversion and made 4 of 6 by the end.
Michigan setting up their defense against an attacking Michigan State.
The second half was all Michigan’s Killer Bees who put in a swarm of tries. In the 45th minute, forward, Sergio Rocha, pounded the ball in to cap a good starting possession for Michigan. Six minutes later, another Michigan forward, Chening Duker, would fight from five meters out for a try. Soon after regaining possession from a State turnover, a long pass to Kevin Cheng allowed Michigan to take advantage of State’s compacted defense making the score 31-12 in the 57thminute. The last score of the day came from an a nice offload to Joe Poznanski compliments of Evan Noon.
A victorious B-side heads back to the sidelines to greet a tunnel of teammates.
1. Ben Shapiro
2. Cam Watson
3. Zach Kendall (Van Horn 23’)
4. Nelson Worner
5. Will Miller (Starkweather 50’)
6. Oliver Gregerson
7. Chening Duker
8. Sergio Rocha
9. Max Arevuo
10. Evan Noon
11. Mark Borowski
12. John Palladino
13. Joe Poznanski
14. Kevin Cheng
15. Samuel Saravolatz
16. Jackson Wagner
17. Stuart Starkweather
18. Travis Sawyer
19. Cole Van Horn (Sawyer 30’)
Tries: Noon 5′, Worner 40′, Rocha 45′, Duker 51′, Cheng 57′, Poznanski 65′
Conversions: Noon 40′, 45′, 51′, 65′
Michigan’s C-side took on Spring Arbor University for the second time this year having won the first match by a score of 26-5. A much improved Spring Arbor team though proved too much to handle for Michigan the second time around. Spring Arbor got on board first with a pass out to the backs who found space in the corner of the try zone. The attempted conversion fell short leaving it at 5-0. In the 22nd minute, Michigan finally equalized the score with a hard run and some broken tackles by Jeff Smith. An exhausted Michigan C-side resulted in a poor second half for the Wolverines as Spring Arbor went on to score four unanswered tries to make the final 25-5.
1. Troy Redmond
2. Cam Watson
3. Jackson Wagner
4. Mike Manzano
5. Kazem Alidoost
6. Sam Saunders
7. Jeff Smith
8. Josh Rousselo
9. Brandon Gardner
10. Chris Kemp
11. Neal Slabbekoorn
12. Ryan McDonough
13. Benjamin Clemens
14. Jack Sligh
15. Kevin Linder
Tries: Smith 22′
1 comments
Game video, please!