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Bates Men's Rugby Defeats UMaine-Orono
The Men’s Rugby team traveled to UMaine-Orono Saturday and returned
with a triumphant 19-0 victory, a feat not accomplished in five years.
Bates had not defeated UMaine since 1998.
Even more impressive is that a total of six rookies started for Bates
in their victory. In the forwards, Nate Earle got the nod at prop, Chris
Theile started at second row, and Ty Lappetito started at number eight.
For the backs, rookie starters include Ben Sheirer at inside center, Ray
Alicia at winger, and Bob Emery at fullback.
Ever the optimist backs Captain Aron Bell called the game, “My most
fulfilling victory so far at Bates…. [W] e played our game and let
them come to us. It was a good way to start the season.” Forwards
Captain Tex Ramsayer commented, “We had a solid defensive outing
anchored by forwards. Efforts like that will give us more wins in the
fall season and in the spring when we tour England and Wales.”
The outsized Bates squad relied on its speed and resilience to hand it
to the Black Bears. Starting forwards included Earle and Dan Neems at
prop, Captain Ramsayer at hooker, Theile and Andrew Simon ’04 at
second Row, Ryuji Matsuzawa And John Butos at wing forward and Lappetito
at #8. With the Bates forwards outweighed by a total of around 200 pounds,
they countered with speed in getting quickly to rucks and mauls and performing
brilliantly in loose play. Line-outs and scrums were dominated by the
Bates pack, oftentimes confusing, many times overpowering the Orono forwards.
The larger Orono team tired quickly, allowing the Bates backs to penetrate
their lines and swing the ball outside. Defensively, centers Connor Boyle
and Ben Sheirer were relentless in bottling up the Orono backs as they
weakly attempted to break the Bates line. Scrum half Ross Allard and fly
half Aron Bell worked together skillfully, pinning Orono deep on kicks,
passing to forwards on crash balls, and kicking it out wide to Boyle,
Sheirer, and wingers Alicia and Sean Siff.
Bates controlled the tempo from the opening kickoff, pushing Maine back
into its own half. First-year center Ben Sheirer put the first points
of the game on the board in the tenth minute, converting a penalty to
make it 3-0. After two near tries were turned away by UMaine, Sheirer
again converted a penalty to put Bates ahead 6-0. The score remained 6-0
until halftime.
After the break, the Bates team came out juiced up. Bates quickly pounced
on the Bears, with Sheirer converting on yet another Orono penalty in
the opening five minutes of the half. Ten minutes later, Bates first-year
second row Chris Theile scored the only try of the game, taking the ball
off a five-meter scrum and rolling off a maul for the score.
After Sheirer’s conversion made the score 16-0, Bates’ defense
stepped up to stop the threatening Bears’ advance multiple times.
The score held until Sheirer tacked on another penalty conversion in the
last five minutes to make it 19-0 final.
Bates Men’s Rugby hosts the Mules of Colby at home on Saturday at
3:00 PM in what will most certainly be a bloodbath. Come watch the mayhem.
-Andrew Simon, '04
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