Men's Rugby 

BENNINGTON Vt. - From flat to just plain flattened. The Southern Vermont College men's rugby team lacked intensity off the opening whistle and paid the price against visiting Albany on Thursday, as the Mountaineers fell into yet another early hole and were defeated, 12-7.

SVC (1-5) lost the majority of the match's early rucks and allowed Albany (4-2) to score the first dozen points on an unseasonably warm day at the Beech Street pitch. The Mountaineers regrouped with the only try of the final 20 minutes of action, but by then it was too-little, too-late for a team that has made a bad habit of starting slow this season.

"It seems like we have the same problem every game - we come out with no intensity," SVC head coach Jeremiah Madison said. "We end up having to play catch-up almost every time, and unfortunately, we don't catch up."

Despite being manhandled in loose play by the aggressive visiting forwards, the Mountaineers managed to dodge a few bullets and keep the match scoreless through the first 19 minutes of play. But Albany center Chris Koch finally made them pay for their hesitation, knifing through a hole in the SVC backline to score the game's first try in the 20th minute.

Flanker Andre Toppin then slotted the conversion to lift the Great Danes to a 7-0 lead.

"That's been the story of our whole season, giving up points early," Madison said.

The next 10 minutes of play saw some back-and-forth action mostly in the pitch's middle third, with SVC finally winning some rucks and mauls with help from hard crashing by eight-man freshman Baffour Obiri (Bronx, NY/Sports Profession HS). But when the Mountaineers did gain possession of the ball, they would often run away from their support rather than grinding out phases of controlled advancement.

"Everyone wanted the ball, wanted to be a hero," Madison said. "But in rugby, you can't have a team full of heroes."

The Mountaineers lost possession on one such sequence and the 'Danes pounced, storming into the SVC end and mounting a brief but fierce goal-line attack on the right side. The home team's forwards made their stand and denied two crash attempts within their final five meters, but Albany then swung the ball out to its backline and punched it in via wing Mike Crumpton to extend their edge to 12-0.

Madison said that solid tackling would have stopped such a tactic dead in its tracks, but the Mountaineers more closely resembled turnstiles than tacklers at that point.

"We were trying to arm tackle them, and they were just running right by us," Madison said.

SVC finally got its collective fire going over the final 20 minutes of play. Freshman scrumhalf Dwight Duncan (Bronx, NY/Sports Profession HS) disrupted his counterpart's pickup at the back of an Albany scrumdown, and Mountaineer lock freshman Robert Cabrera (Bronx, NY/Sports Profession HS was able to win possession in the ensuing ruck to start his team heading back downfield.

The Mountaineers reached the 'Dane goal line and went into smashmouth mode, until Obiri finally bulldozed in to finally get the home team on the board. SVC captain junior Mike Nosek (Wheelwright, MA/Quabbin HS) then hooked the conversion just over the right upright to bring the final score to 12-7.

Madison took some solace in his team's play over the final stretch, but lamented the lack of such execution over such a long period of play prior.

"We finally stepped up the intensity, starting hitting, tackling and rucking," Madison said. "But I don't know why we can't seem to play like that from the start of a match."

The Mountaineers will need to elevate their play for this weekend's do-or-die home match against Vermont Tech, as SVC now needs to win out in order to make it into the postseason. Madison said that the team's fate is in its own hands at this point, as he has given them the tools to succeed but can only do so much from the sideline.

"It's on the players now," Madison said. "I've taught them everything I can; now they have to come together, get focused and start playing to win."

Saturday's match takes place at 1 p.m. at the Beech Street pitch.

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