New Paltz Unbeaten in TriState Conference Play

Last Sunday, both of our New Paltz teams made their home debuts. The women hosted USMMA and the men lined up against SUNY Maritime. While the opposing club once again let down the women in terms of numbers, the men were put to the test by an imposing Pioneers side. Officially Sunday adds two more conference wins for the Orange and Blue.

Women’s Team

This season has so far been plagued by unreliable opponents for the women. The original visitors for this conference game were SUNY Maritime for a matching double-header with the men. Early in the week, the club was notified that Maritime did not have enough players to field a team and would be forfeiting. In lieu of taking the weekend off, a game was arranged with USMMA. The morning of the match, a message was sent by the new opponents that they would only be coming with four players - not quite enough. As a result, New Paltz played an intrasquad scrimmage over four quarters with the four USMMA players mixed in for experience. While a great opportunity for field time for new players, the women have yet to play their first fifteens game. The official result for Sunday was a win by forfeit over SUNY Maritime in the TriState Conference. The ladies move to 2-0, undefeated for the season thus far.

Coach Thierry Duclay was eager to focus on the positive takeaways from the day. As he continues to rebuild the women’s program, any opportunity to take the field has to be taken advantage of.

“Our players shone on the field, with Emma (Riutta), Liz (Lewis), Liam (Gorelin), Ash(Champlain), August (Berman), Kay (Mackey), Lily Belle (Sgroe) and others scoring impressive tries. It was a great day for growth, working on skills, and celebrating every improvement. The team had fun with the USMMA players, who we will be playing with again next week.”

Co-Captain Angelica Silva-Perez echoed her coach’s outlook on this past weekend. She also saw the budding relationship with USMMA as a resource to make the team stronger this season.

“I’m excited for this Saturday. This semester we’ve had a lot of new players. All very strong on the pitch and very willing to learn the sport. We are also recruiting some USMMA girls from our last match this past Sunday to join us at Siena and hopefully future matches.”

Duclay and company will face a much more organized Siena College this Saturday at 1:00 pm at 515 Loudon Rd, Loudonville, NY 12211.

Men’s Team

Following the women’s exhibition, the men kicked off against SUNY Maritime. Maritime traveled with impressive numbers and watching warmups made it clear that a win would not come easily.

The visitors scored early after kickoff through one of their wings running 80 metres to dot it down under the posts. What followed was an 80-minute arm wrestle with New Paltz perpetually behind by a single score. Co-Captain Fred Asher proved to be the difference between the two sides, steering the Hawks from fly-half and keeping the points ticking over from the tee.

His long-range penalty goals pulled New Paltz ahead by a nerve-wracking two points with 14 minutes left to play. Not to let their captain’s efforts be in vain, the men dug deep for an impressive defensive effort to close out the game and secure the win.

Injuries earlier in the week meant there were some changes in personnel at key positions throughout the match day 23. Coach Venables was impressed with how his players rose to the occasion.

“So many of the guys played awesome today. We had some of our best players out because they were hurt, so a lot of young guys had to step in or move around. Darragh (O’Connell) got moved to inside center and played sick. Will (Nicolson) and Angelo are rookies and put in a ton of work at 8 and prop. And Jackson (Thorne) man! Jackson is new to the game, but he played like a maniac at flanker. (Co-Captain) Ryan Brown moved from his usual number 8 to prop to cover for some injured players which was a big deal. And Richie (Lara-Rodriguez) played a great game at prop and scored a crucial try for us. So yea, just really happy with all of the guys and all the effort out there today.”

Asher took Sunday’s performance as a sign of things to come, but was

“The game was one of the most fun that I’ve played. It was very evenly matched. and of course a comeback win is always awesome. I was impressed with the tries we scored, and a lot of the guys performed as good or better than ever. That being said, Vassar poses a very daunting challenge. I feel great about the team, and we’ll hopefully have some starting players back injury for that game, but we’re going to have to spend the bye week working hard to improve if we want to win. In my time at NPRFC we’ve never beaten Vassar, but this is the deepest squad in years, so the time is now. The fuel of keeping the undefeated season alive is burning hot.”

Hopefully this break in play for the men will give enough time for their injured players to return to play and New Paltz will head across the river to Vassar firing on all cylinders.

Win over SUNY Maritime 28-26

Try: Caleb Persanis, Parker Karinsky, and Richie Lara-Rodriguez

Conversion: Fred Asher (2)

Penalty Goal: Fred Asher (3)

The Week Ahead

This Saturday, the women’s team is travelling to Siena for their first big test of the season. This is billed as Siena’s senior day, so they will have every incentive to spoil New Paltz’s record.

The men have a bye week due to the cancellation of this weekend’s game against Oneonta. They will instead be using the time to prepare for their biggest game of the season next weekend against Vassar.

Lots of people have reached out asking how they can contribute to the needs of the rugby programs. We have a large alumni base and passionate fans that can make an immediate impact. The current MO for a rainy game is for both teams to sit in their cars until kickoff time. This would be funny if it weren’t so sad. A canopy tent costs $100 dollars and drastically changes the gameday experience for these student-athletes. We have purchased two tents (one for each team) that should arrive in time for the trip to Sienna.

Additionally, the men’s team is having a plaque made for Raymond Rattray, their teammate who was killed in January of this year. The total cost of the plaque is $140. Right now they need to choose between buying new equipment and memorializing their friend. This is something that we can cover as supporters of the rugby program.

If you would like to contribute to these initiatives, we have set up a business Venmo account to handle and distribute the funds. No amount is too small to give. Any amount in excess will be donated to Juan Molina to help cover his medical costs as mentioned last week.

As always, thank you for your continued support. Together we are helping guide New Paltz rugby to new heights.

Go Hawks