In a clash of well-regarded school teams in the Northeast, Pelham held off Fairfield Prep 17-14 Saturday in Connecticut.
The game started well for Pelham, as they made ground right off the kickoff. They ran through for 25 meters and some good hard running off the next phase put them through for another 15. uUt they didn't score after a cross-field kick was blown straight out by the wind.
Fairfield got out of that and pressures Pelham, and the teams changed momentum back and forth. Later on Pelham once again broke through off a scrum move. Once again Fairfield halted the charge. But Pelham kept up the pressure and earned a penalty. However, they missed touch—they missed touch on penalties five times in the first half.
Finally, Pelham did score, keeping the ball during a penalty advantage and prop Mike Rooney crashed over with Nathan de Lattre converting.
Off the restart Pelham flanker Bailey Worsely, who was a force all day, thundered through the middle and gained 40 meters before offloading to lock Massimo Pietranico.The big second row powered on for another 35 meters to score. De Lattre converted and just like that it was 14-0.
03.17.2024HS Boys
That's how it stayed for the rest of the first half and those missed kicks to touch didn't help.
In the second half, Fairfield punished some Pelham mistakes, but it took a while for all of that to result in points. With about 10 minutes to go, Fairfield Prep was awarded a penalty at midfield. They kicked to touch, took a lineout five meters from the Pelham line, and when the lineout throw went long, nabbed the ball to go over. Moments later, they scored off a lineout again, this time with a throw to the front. Mike Silk and Rober Murphy were the try-scorers, with Murphy converting both.
Now it was 14-14, and Pelham was not having any more luck finding touch on penalties—they ended up 0-for-10 on kicks to touch with balls landing infield, rolling dead, or being caught.
As time wound down, however, Pelham partially charged down a clearance kick from Fairfield. The ball was caught but the player who caught it was tackled high. This gave a chance for de Lattre and he made no mistake, slotting the penalty to win the game.
Pelham 17
Tries: Rooney, Pietranico
Convs: de Lattre 2
Pens: de Lattre
Fairfield Prep 14
Tries: Murphy, Silk
Convs: Murphy 2
