Tech Ruggers Winners in Vegas

by Coach Dave Wheelock

SOCORRO, N.M., Oct. 6, 2003 -- New Mexico Tech’s rugby team beat the house and the weather in Las Vegas (NM) Saturday, bringing home a 30-14 win over the Highlands University Rugby Club. The Pygmies squeezed four tries into the narrow confines of Perkins Stadium and between intermittent showers while yielding the home team two scores for the difference.

The narrow (55-yard) football lines worked against Tech’s dangerous backline,
who found the lanes clogged with eager Highlands defenders, and so for the first time in ten matches this season, it was Tech’s forwards who stepped up to manhandle the young Highlands eight in an impressive display of scrummaging and open play. Three of the four tries were scored by forwards, including a career first for freshman prop Art Emus.
Hooker Trevenor Evans earned the Irish Cup as Man of the Match for his active and tireless play in defense and support play. Standouts among the Tech “scrummies” also included flankers Matt Majors and Phillip Turner, and lock Taylor Dotson. In a show of club solidarity, former Pygmy Marvin MacAuley, (class of 1998) who lives in the Las Vegas area, played the full match at prop forward for his old club.

The morning rains relented just at kickoff, and Tech’s eight forwards opened play by pressuring the home team with long periods of ball possession, with which their back line mates threatened but could not capitalize. After nine minutes in the Vatos’s end of the field, center Katsuya Sugimoto finally barged over the line from a penalty tap, and backs’ captain Patrick Simons converted for a 7-0 Tech lead.

At thirteen minutes, NMHU’s dominant player, flyhalf Micah Mills, set sail for a 40-yard run over, around, and through several would-be tacklers for a converted try to knot the scores. Tech responded with a Simons penalty goal after 15 minutes (10-7) and a heads-up penalty run by captain Mark Kelly just before intermission to bring the halftime score to 15-7 in favor of New Mexico Tech.

In the second half, Tech continued their dominance up front and their frustration out wide. Simons connnected on another three-pointer after a Vato penalty, but Tech’s fast men were repeatedly thwarted by the sure tackling of their opposites. Finally the game plan was altered by the forwards taking matters into their own hands. From a penalty situation close to the Vato line, scrum half Paul Quintana foot-tapped the ball and passed to a wave of onrushing forwards. Loosehead prop Art Emus took the ball at full speed and there was no stopping the muscular San Diegan as he crashed over near the corner. The conversion kick was missed from a difficult angle and the score stood at 23-7 in NMT’s favor.

The Vatos were not finished, however, and from a scrum the ball came to Micah Mills, who found enough daylight after faking a kick to streak for another long-distance try. The successful conversion left Highlands adrift 23-14 and needing two scores in the remaining 13 minutes. But they were disappointed three minutes from full time by a perfectly-worked play by the Pygmy forwards. From a scrum restart 25 yards out, the Tech pack presented the ball neatly at the back of the tightly-bound formation, from where the #8 Mark Kelly picked up and rushed forward before dishing off to Paul Quintana. The scrumhalf turned as he was tackled and popped it back perfectly for Kelly to scamper in for a try converted seconds later by Simons to finalize scoring at 30 to 14 in favor of New Mexico Tech.

The NMT Rugby Club takes a weeklong breather before returning to action in the High Desert Classic rugby tournament in Albuquerque October 18 and 19. The HDC features collegiate and club men’s and women’s teams from throughout the western United States. The tournament was established in 1971.

-NMT-