North Shore 33 Charles River C/Old Boys 12

October 18, 2003

North Shore five tries 4 conversions, CR 2 tries 1 conversion

What turned out to be NSRFC's final match of the fall was a good one, although played late in the day and without our usual lineup in full force.

Battling the Head of the Charles traffic and finding the field turned out to be pretty challenging, but most did arrive in time for kickoff.

Facing a mixture of guys who had previously played in either an A or B game, college guys, Old Boys (who the f%ck knows?), North Shore came out and established an attacking game and carried the play for most of the first half.

Forward play was solid and the result was Rich DePiero having clean ball to send out to the backs via Dan Donato, who shipped it out all day with good results. Pretty much all of the backs got in on the attack, with Martin Mahoney, Rob Moran, Jesse Brewer and Scott Marcoulier seeing most of the ball and supporting well for multiple phase attacks.

Matt Thibault also got his hands on the ball from his pack position for some of his trademark hard runs. Reade Morrison also stayed in support and ended up with a try for his efforts. 

The forwards put together some nice drives on rolling mauls, off lineouts, and gained us some ground on top of winning lots of ruck ball and having little trouble in winning lineouts. Overall a good day.

Known to have scored tries were Jesse Brewer (who had a fine running day), Martin Mahoney (making breaks as always), Reade Morrison, Trevor Maz (only one... he must have been tired), and someone else that eludes me. File under "almost"... Rob dropping the ball in attempt to touch it down one-handed in the try zone (it was wet!) and Dan Donato (agonizingly close to touching down while "gentle as a lamb" T-Bo exchanged fisticuffs at midfield).

The game was roughly 21-0 at halftime and there were some pockets of laxed play which allowed Charles River to get on the board for two tries, mostly the result of poor tackling and coverage but also credit Charles River's backs for some good running.

Always a solid opponent, River played hard in the rucks and mauls and kept us on our heels at various points in the match. There was a questionable incident involving Jesse Dole's eyes which are luckily still functional, but overall it was a pretty clean game.

Damien Bamberg made a second half appearance and planted the Charles River fly half T-Bo style. Scott Marcoulier saved maybe three tries by chasing down CR runners close to the try zone. Trevor "Ali" Maz got our third sin-bin in recent memory for taking on a Charles River old boy in some post-whistle shennanigans.

Danny Forsythe made another strong appearance for North Shore and was a stalwart in the pack, corralling our forwards into some organized mauls and drives. Liam Brady once again put in a strong effort when needed. Gus del Puerto made a second half appearance and picked up right where Rich left off, getting the backs some good ball.

Once again each person who stepped on the field for North Shore held their own, as we continue to get better and deeper, some of the new guys will be pushing for playing time... always a good problem.

North Shore XV
1-Tom Moloney---->Damien Bamberg
2-Reade Morrison
3-Danny Forsythe--->Jeff West
4-Matt Cogliano
5-Liam Brady
6-Matt Thibault
7-Tony Buonaugurio--->?
8-Jesse Dole-->Ken Spinale--->Tony
9-Rich DePiero
10-Dan Donato
11-Jesse Brewer
12-Martin Mahoney
13-Rob Moran
14-Trevor Maz
15-Scott Marcoulier

Coach - Des Crowley

Ref - Some A$%hole! Just kidding.. Dan Solomon... made to ref a game between his two clubs but nonetheless fair and entertaining.