Rugby dominates in home opener against Norwich

The Middlebury men’s Rugby Team opened up their regular season with a decisive victory against the Norwich Cadets. With firm control over the pace of the game and a final score of 53-7, the Panthers’ hard work and determination is obviously paying off.

“Norwich is traditionally a good team with extreme military discipline,” said Geoff Kalan ’12.5.

MCRC knew they had a tough match ahead of them, but drawing upon their hours of work on the pitch leading up to this opening game they managed to clearly overpower the Norwich team.

“We came out firing and managed to get some early points and establish ourselves right away,” said co-captain Brian Sirkia ’12.5. “We’ve been working on a new system of play that should get the ball out wide to the wings more often, and we used it to great effect against Norwich”

This new system of play led to an incredible three tries from winger Kennedy Mugo ’12, who was one of many on the Middlebury squad to catch the Norwich defense entirely unprepared on the outside. His success would not have been possible, however, without the strength and determination from Kalan , Chris Vandergrift ’11 and Sirkia and the domination in every scrum by Cameron Wilson ’14.

“We played a mostly liquid style of rugby and had success moving the ball rapidly through the hands and across the entire pitch,” said Kalan.

Other tries were scored by Ross Berriman ’12, Danny Powers ’11.5 and Don Song ’13. Song’s try was especially sweet for the squad as it marked his successful return to the game after withdrawing from the MCRC last spring.

The impressive performance from Vandergrift added another two tries to Middlebury’s tally. A player with incredible field awareness, his three tries in the past two games have put him in the running to be a top try scorer on the season despite being a prop.

“Yesterday’s game was a major success for us because we were able to really play flowing and open rugby, something we’ve been working on from the start of the season,” said co-captain Rowan Kelner ’12. “I really think we are playing the best rugby that I have seen since I’ve been here.”

The Panthers return to the pitch this week to prepare for their game against the University of New Hampshire, a former D1 team, on Saturday. “We do still have a lot of work to do and will be training hard this week to prepare for our away game against UNH,” said Sirkia.