On Friday January 20th, the White House wasn’t the only place that saw a transition of power. UMRFC’s weekly sevens games proved again that this year would not be like the last. With some triumphant wins and heart breaking losses, week two brought us more great rugby. The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is how did our favorite team, Bennie Oosterbaan, do? Find out the answer and more below!
Game 1: Sues 19 – Bennie 22
Week 2 started off with a great game won by the best team out there, our unofficial (but slowly moving towards official) favorites, Bennie Oosterbaan. Bennie struggled to find enough players due to some injuries and unexpected absences this week, and some would argue this contributed to this game being as close as it was. An unfortunate (though admittedly deserved) yellow card on Oosterbaan’s Max “swollville” Cocco for a high tackle put Bennie in an early numbers mismatch with only six players to Mary Sue Coleman’s seven. This allowed for Tohy “by the time you’re finished saying my last name I’m in the try zone” Rakotovololona to dart into the try zone and gain an early score for the Sues. After the resulting kick from Tohy himself went straight out of bounds, Bennie was given a penalty kick at center field. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Bennie capitalizes on these kinds of opportunities. A quick offload to Lyric “my knees have seen better days” Kleber, allowed him to break a tackle and make a big run down the field. Lyric quickly offloaded (while being tackled) to Ron “savage mode” Marine who was able to dot down the try for Bennie! Unfortunately for our heroes on Oosterbaan, Lyric was injured during this play. After another high tackle penalty on Bennie (this time without a card), Tohy ran the ball down the field where the young Max “I’m clearly still learning about high tackle rules” Cocco again made a high tackle that led to a red card. Our protagonists were now going to have to play the rest of the game a man down. As a result of the penalty, the Sues were also awarded a penalty try. Things didn’t look good for the fine gentleman of Oosterbaan, but of course they were able to capitalize on the resulting kickoff. After the handsome Ben “I am definitely not the writer of this post” Cotsarelis (also known as lanky armed Tower), caught the kick and passed the ball off, it was expertly moved across the field by Bennie. Eventually landing in Guy “Buddy” Burke’s hands, who gave a nice offload to Bennie’s leading try scorer Ryan “wheeeeeeeels” Hart who promptly took off and scored a try for Bennie after a long run and an incredible dummy-sidestep combo against Tohy. Later, after a hard fought drive by Bennie, the Sues poached the ball and got it in the hands of the brand new Dean “philly boy” Persichetti who ran all the way down the field and scored his first ever try for the Sues. Shortly after this, Ron Marine fielded a long offload from yours truly and made a long run down to the try zone to put five more on the board for Bennie. After a few minutes of intense play, Bennie’s superstar Ryan “I can juke anyone” Hart s fielded a stray kick from the Sues and brought the ball into the try zone to win the game for Bennie as time expired.
Game 2: Canham 38 – Ross 10
An unfortunate loss for Ross here, but on the bright side we got some great footage of Jamie “Cha Cha” Demers sprinting across the field in the first 3 seconds of the game film. Canham started the scoring off early by getting the ball to the edge, where Zack “Junior” Burns impressively broke a few tackles and ran almost the entire field to score a try. On the resulting kickoff, Junior again made a great heads up play and was able to field the kick in the air. Canham promptly pushed down the field and was able to get the ball into the try zone (touched down by Colin “Shaggy” Walters.) Ross was able to score next by employing the dubious strategy of running the ball repeatedly back into the middle of the field directly into defenders. After many “pick and goes” and one pass plays off the ruck, Meng Shi was able to touch the ball down in the try zone for Ross. Canham soon responded with a score after a long run from Tanner “I like flowers” Visco. After a botched lineout by Ross, Canham was able to quickly capitalize and Zack “nice scrumcap” Burns was able to put another try in for Canham. After a few more minutes of play, Canham was able to get the ball to Albert “Dirty Dancing” Foo who ran around a couple of defenders and scored the try. He then immediately attempted to execute the famous move from the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, a favorite move of his after a score. After a kick from Meng went to high and hit the ceiling, a lucky Jeremy “Dozer” Reid was able to catch the ball and run it towards the try zone, where the young Caleb Fisher took over and scored the try for Canham. The final score of the game came when Canham was hovering in the red zone, poised to score yet another try. However, they forgot about Ross’s secret weapon: John “you can’t see me” Spooney. Spooney was able to get the ball and sidestep a defender and he then ran almost the entire field in what must have been a record time for Michigan Rugby. Spooney scored the try as time expired, but alas, Canham’s ever growing ego cannot be stopped.
Game 3: Jones 5 – Dudes 33
Jones started off strong in this game, getting the ball very close to the try zone. Props to Andre “is anyone in there?” Cargill for stopping a raging Nick “Crawwwwwdad” Mattes dead in his tracks with a great tackle. Unfortunately for them, the Dudes were able to get the ball wide to Jared “charmander” Char who ran it all the way to the other try zone to score for the Dudes, despite David Caputo’s best efforts to hold up the try. Things were pretty much downhill for Jones from there, with Andre “I can run around any defender” Cargill scoring another for the Dudes shortly after. The Dudes didn’t let up there, and a long run from Kyle “I was recruited by Life” Patmore allows him to put 5 more on the board for the Dudes to end the half. Right at the start of the half, Nate “Fish” Fisher got the ball on the edge and ran way down the field, dishing a nice offload to Guy “buddy guy dude man” Burke who scored the try. On the resulting kickoff, the Dudes were able to get the ball back and fight their way down the field in order to allow Lucas “farm boy” Dean to run the ball in for a score. At this point we all felt bad for Jones and we believed things would only get worse for them. However, Jones did not give up! After some solid runs by Nick Mattes and David Caputo, Nick scored a try for Jones. Atta way guys! Unfortunately the Dudes would not let the opposing team end on a high note, and quickly scored a try off the kickoff with a nice offload to Kyle Patmore who ran down the field and scored the try. Jones responded with a long run drive the field, but were unable to get into the try zone before time expired.
Game 4: Bennie 5 – Canham 19
You can tell from the score that this one was a real shame. And I’m not one to bad mouth officiating but I mean, c’mon. Bennie was in a bad position going into this game with only 5 healthy players present. Many would argue that if you take a full, healthy Bennie team and put them on the field in this situation, the score would look entirely different. Alas, such a team was not present, and Canham’s ego grew even bigger. An unfortunate error in a Bennie lineout led to Canham being able to eek out a try through the efforts of Justin “I am a mouse” Malin about 2 minutes in to the game. Our heroes on Benie were not deterred and, soon after the resulting kickoff, managed to drive the ball down towards the other try zone. A great offload from Ryan “c-stick” Hart to Max “try time” Cocco led to what many thought was a for sure try. Unfortunately for Bennie, Max “whoops” Cocco was not able to touch the ball down. Forunately for Bennie, the brand new Obiora “Obi, yeah as in Obi-wan” Eneli demonstrated a masterful behind-the-back, no-look offload to Ron “actually try time” Marine, who put the ball down for 5 points to Bennie. Bennie was a bit ambitious with their kicks week two and again kicked the ball less than ten meters out, resulting in another penalty to the Sith … I mean Canham. The dark side prevailed as Canham capitalized on the penalty with a long run from Henry “beast mode” Phillips. Henry tossed a nice offload to Jeremy “Dozer” Reid who managed to touch the ball down in the try zone despite Ryan Hart’s best efforts to tackle him. The two teams played well against each other for the next few minutes. Neither team was able to score, and the ball travelled up and down the field. Finally, Bennie had the ball near the try zone, but a stray pass from Ben “my bad” Cotsarelis led to an eventual turnover. Eager to redeem him/myself, Ben, that is to say I, poached a ball from a tackled Canham player and was on my way to scoring a try when the shrill whistle of the sir cut through the air. Apparently, according to the sir, I had not released from the tackle before poaching the ball. This was definitely not a popular call with me at the time (although film may or may not confirm it was the right call). Regardless of film, if I know Ben “tower” Cotsarelis, he’s going to stick to his guns on this one. Anyway, after the penalty, Albert “down with Bennie” Foo quickly tapped the ball against his foot and ran the 70+ yards to the opposite try zone against a confused Bennie team. Shortly after that, another questionable “not-releasing” call angered Jason “my brain is a rugby rulebook” Anthony. Nothing was to be done however, and neither team scored again after almost 5 minutes of back and forth play. A heartbreaker for our protagonists, and no one is to doubt that the next Bennie vs. Canham game will be a great one.
Game 5: Dudes 26 – Sues 0
It’s always tough to see a shutout, but it is a bit easier when one thinks of the countless times the players on Mary Sue Coleman or the “Sue Crew” have bragged about being a great team. Just kidding guys (don’t hurt me). The first 6 minutes of this game actually went scoreless. Some great back and forth play led to neither team scoring until Andre “turtleneck” Cargill scored for the Dudes with 1 minute left in the first half. Unfortunately for the Sues, the Dudes were able to quickly score again after the kickoff from Andre’s try, this time Nate “Fish” Fisher swam his way to the try zone. This closed out the first half, but not much changed for the Sues in the second half. A good drive down the field led to Justin “I’m actually on Canham” Malin scoring a try for the Dudes. On the Dudes’s next drive down the field, Andre “now I’m a quarterback” Cargill threw the ball overhand like a football to his teammate across the field. Unfortunately this heinous move is technically legal, fortunately, it didn’t lead to a try for the Dudes. It wasn’t until much later that Jared Char fielded an offload on the outside of the field and ran the ball in for the last score of the game.
Game 6: Ross 27 – Jones 17
Jones started off the scoring here with a nice drive down the field capped off with a try from Lee Moore. After a few more minutes of play, Ross was able to counter with a long run from their speedy John “I’m speedy” Spooney. After another few minutes of play it was again John Spooney who ran the ball into the try zone to give Ross another 5 points to end the half. Ross’s strategy of kicking the ball long ended up being detrimental for them during the halftime kickoff as the ball went into the back of the try zone. Fortunately for Ross, the opposing team did not capitalize and play continued for many more scoreless minutes. It wasn’t until later that Ross managed to score again by getting the ball to, you guessed it, John “too easy” Spooney. Ross quickly scored another try by using their now proven “get the ball to Spooney” strategy. Ross again kicked the ball out of the back of the try zone, and the Jones were able to create a favorable matchup on the resulting penalty kick that ended in a try touched down by Ben “I don’t only score tries for Oosterbaan” Cotsarelis. Unfortunately for Jones, Ross’s new strategy seemed to be too good to beat. John “I think that’s five tries this game” Spooney put down another five points for Ross. At least Jones ended the game on a high note, scoring a try to end the game. Ross kicked the ball too far back once again, and on the resulting kickoff Ben “still a Bennie at heart” Cotsarelis got the ball on the edge and quickly offloaded it to David Caputo who ran it in for a try.
Another great week of rugby this week. More to come! If you think I took too many liberties with this write-up, you’re probably right.
