This past Saturday, Mystic River hosted a doubleheader at Pine Banks where the D2 Mystic Barbarians defeated the Boston Irish Wolfhounds D2 team 64-10 and the D1 Mystic River team lost to Old Blue 20-66.
The Mystic Barbarians were looking for a win in their final regular season match to solidify a spot in the playoffs. After about 15 minutes of competitive play from both teams, prop Marcos Flegmann blasted over a few Wolfhound players for a try. Fullback Stephen Diamantopoulos converted the try giving the Barbarians a 7-0 lead. The Barbarians would tack on two more unanswered tries by center Mike Rudzinsky and flyhalf Nick Vettese, both beautiful assisted by second row Rob Brennan and hooker Matt Maloney, respectively. With Diamantopoulos converting 1 of the 2 tries, Mystic River held a 19-0 lead midway through the first half. The Wolfhounds responded with an unconverted try of their own. But on the final play of the first half, wing Mike Spiro burned the defense with his speed and dotted down an uncontested try which was then converted by Diamantopoulos. Mystic Barbarians took a 26-5 lead into halftime.
The Barbarians did not let up coming out of halftime scoring 5 consecutive tries. The try scorers in the second half were wing Aki Raymond, Vettese, scrumhalf Matt Charest, center Liam Smith, and second row Jon Fonvielle. The score after Fonvielle’s try was 57-5 in favor of Mystic River. The Wolfhounds then added another unconverted try of their own. In the final play of the match, the Wolfhounds were threatening within Mystic’s 10 meter line. That was until Spiro intercepted a pass and went 90 meters untouched for a try. Diamantopoulos was able to convert 4 of the 6 second half tries and the Mystic Barbarians won the match by a score of 64-10 to lock up the #3 NERFU playoff seed!
The Division 1 squad kicked off the second part of the doubleheader against Old Blue. Shortly after the opening kickoff, Old Blue opened up the scoring with a converted try in the corner. Old Blue led 0-7 early. Mystic River got on the board with a penalty kick slotted by wing Mike Armstrong which closed the gap to 3-7. Old Blue responded with another converted try in the corner. Armstrong was called on again for a penalty kick and slotted another. About 30 minuets into the match, Mystic River was down 6-14. Before the halftime whistle blew, Old Blue scored two more converted tries and took a 6-28 lead into half.
Old Blue was able to keep their first half momentum going scoring 4 unanswered tries and raising the score to 6-52. Mystic River continued to comeback despite the large deficit. Flyhalf Dylan Lubbe made a break through the defensive line before dishing it over to center Jared Collinson for Mystic’s first try of the afternoon. Soon after that try, Lubbe again split the defense and score one for himself. Armstrong converted both of those tries easing the deficit to 20-52. But Mystic River’s efforts were not enough. Old Blue responded with two tries of their own before the final whistle. Old Blue took the match 20-66.
Both Mystic teams will have this upcoming weekend off, but will be holding an intrasquad scrimmage. The Division 1 team will look for to rebound in their next match against NYAC at Pine Banks on April 22nd. On that same date, the Division 2 team will be traveling to Worcester to take on Worcester RFC in the NERFU Semifinals. Both teams could use your support, so please try to attend!
Upcoming Schedule:
4/15 (SAT) – D1/D2 – BYE
4/22 (SAT) 1:00 pm – D1 vs. NYAC
4/22 (SAT) 1:00 pm – D2 at Worcester (PLAYOFFS)
GO BLUE!!