By Matthew Bigelow
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – The University of Maine at Farmington’s men’s rugby team entered the Beast of the East Tournament last Saturday ranked 11th in its national conference and with a sense of urgency to show not only the East Coast, but the country that it was one of the finest clubs in the land.
Beast of the East is the premier collegiate rugby tournament, featuring roughly 80 teams playing in three conferences every spring at the pitches of Portsmouth, R.I. Going into their April 14 matchups, UMF understood that they would be tested from the draw within their pool. Respected clubs Mass Maritime Academy and high-level Roger Williams both intended to win their pool on Saturday. The first test for UMF were the tree trunk-sized men from MMA. UMF needed their go-to tackling forwards, led by Ian Morrison, the mean mugging Quinn Fogarty, Dom Cognata and Thomas Young. UMF tacklers made sure that no Buccaneer from Massachusetts would break through their lines. With the start that they wanted, UMF ran through the branches of those tree trunks in an impressive 43-7 victory.
The final match on Saturday for the UMF men determined who would win the pool, with Roger Williams and UMF both sitting at one victory apiece. Once the match began, things didn’t come easy for the Beavers, but they still controlled the game enough to take a slim lead at the half. Head Coach Tony Solis brought in solid freshmen newcomers Patrick Powers and Brady Denison to help contain the outside game. Veteran Shane O’Neil made things look easy back at full back throughout the weekend by tackling everyone in sight and cleaning up any Roger William’s hope of making a home run play. After the final whistle blew, UMF took their pool with the victory over Roger Williams 21-10, putting the Beavers into the Cup bracket on Sunday.
The next day, UMF went into their Cup bracket as the #2 seed while the UMF’s in-state rival University of Maine at Orono sat at the top as the #1 seed. This motivated the Beavers to make a statement against their initial opponents: Holy Cross, the team they had faced for the NERFU championship. Standout backs Nathan Backus and John Rousseau made sure that the engines were turned on in the back line as the high-speed offense of the Beavers was too much for Holy Cross to keep up with. UMF made their statement by beating the Crusaders 58-0.
In the semi-final, UMF knew they had to keep their eyes on the Cup Match as they were now so close. The Vassar College men’s RFC was next in line. Thanks to crowd favorite bash brothers, Cormac and Killian Miller, UMF put on a show that kept fans in the freezing rain cheering. With another great dominance by the Beavers, the college men from Franklin County took the win 53-7.
Finally, UMF found themselves right where they wanted to be in the Cup Final. Their opponent and spring rival, UMass Dartmouth (the team who eliminated UMF in last year’s tournament) beat the #1 seeded UMO in their semifinal in an eye opening 47-7 as they picked apart the determined but shorthanded Black Bears.
UMF gladly accepted the challenge. As the whistle blew, both teams came up firing, distributing forceful hits, great handling and forcing both teams to play at their highest level. For UMF, Jack Neary and Mack Telfer broke through the lines and made bone crunching tackles that were heard from the sidelines. Going into the half, UMF had their lead cut in half by a late, first half try in the corner by UMass Dartmouth that made the first half score 10-5. The skilled UMF captain, Jake Murphy, gathered the team together as he pushed and encouraged players to give everything they had. Along with Captain Murphy, UMF seniors, Zach Nadeau, Jonny Islieb and Patrick McDonald made sure they set the tone as the team followed their lead leaving everything on the field. The Beavers fitness was too much for UMass as the final whistle blew with the final score 28-5. The UMF men and numerous fans who made the long trip celebrated their second Beast of the East Championship in just three years by displaying some of the finest champagne rugby that was displayed years that players and veteran coaches, Tony Solis and Woody Hanstein has seen.
The UMF men will play their next tournament at Deering High School, May 29 as they seek to win their third straight Maine Cup. The following weekend will be the always exciting Alumni match with the girls and men’s teams will face some old teammates on May 5, at Prescott Field.
