September 2, 2016
Army West Point Men’s Rugby Opens Season with Win Over Stony Brook
Doug Coil
Army West Point Men’s Rugby opened their season in a non-conference match against Stony Brook earlier this evening at the Anderson Rugby Complex.
After an early 3-0 lead by Stony Brook four minutes into the match, Army scored four first half tries by Jake Lachina, Harrison Farrell and two by Jareth Long-Garrett. During the second half they added three more for a 49-3 win. Second half tries were scored by Jake Lachina who added his second try of the match, Luke Heun and Conner Parker. Jon Kim set a school record with seven conversions during the match.
Army will open their Rugby East season next Friday September 9 home at he Anderson Rugby Complex against the Iona Gaels at 6pm. Stony Brook opens their Empire Rugby Conference season on September 10 against Binghamton.
Last year Army finished third in the Rugby East with a 5-2 record. Matt Sherman, in his second season as head coach, will have the team ready for a challenging League season.
Matt Sherman said post-match that”I thought the effort and physicality were definitely positives. I thought we played hard and physical, and that’s something that is always important to us. We always want to be the team that wins everything that takes no talent.”
“I think the road gets a lot rockier moving forward, starting with a tough Iona team. There are certainly areas we need to be more clinical if we want to be successful, starting with our discipline.”
Senior Luke Heun added “It was great getting back into it. We had a lot of guys in new positions who stepped up tonight.”
Finally record setter Jon Kim said “The team played really well together. We worked through our present situational objectives and held our shape nicely. Setting the record is pretty cool, and the guys who scored set me up in a position to succeed.”
Stony Brook expects to challenge for the Empire Rugby Conference title. Last year the Seawolves lost to Syracuse in the Conference Championships. They also won the ACRC Bowl for the second consecutive Bowl. Jerry Mirro, Stony Brook Head Coach, has consistently had the team competing for the Empire Championship. I would expect this will prove to be true as the season progresses.
Army West Point Squad v Stony Brook
1. Connor Parker 2. Ryan Moshak (Jamison Geracci @ 63rd) 3. Adam Szott (Dan Dougherty @ 72nd) 4. Chris L’Amoureux 5. Sean Berry 6. Ben Lemon (Alec Smith @ 50th) 7. Ryan Manion (Will Miller @ 56th) 8. Jareth Long-Garrett 9. Harrison Farrell (John Royston @ 72nd) 10. Jon Kim 11. Tony Smith 12. Luke Heun (Michael McTiernan @ 52nd) 13. Sam Sutera 14. Nathan Williams 15. Jake Lachina (Jeffrey Malm-Annan @ 50th)