The Met New York U23 Selects defeated a combined White Plains team 43-24 in a hastily-organized game Saturday in the New York area.

The Met NY team is comprised of players who played their high school rugby in the New York City area, and have gone on to college either nearby or far away.

Desperate To Play; MetNY U23s Train For The Chance

Having trained for a while now, the younger team was fit and played a fast game, while the White Plains group, which brought in some players and rotated them in, was physical and savvy, but maybe not quite in game-day shape. White Plains got three tries from speedy flanker DaQuan Perry, and did well them they used their power in the tight five. But when the game opened up, it was the Met NY team that was in control. With captain Luke Persanis (Delaware) sending a long pass out to one of the assistant captains, John Powers (Iona), at flyhalf, they were able to stretch the White Plains defense in short order, and when they wanted to go wide, they went wide quickly.

That resulted in tries for all three outside backs, with wing Justin Lopez (Delaware) getting two tries while wing Justin Johnson (Lafayette) and fullback Mike Marro (Iona) got one each. Up front, White PLains dominated the scrums most of the time but again in open field, the more mobile Met NY pack held its own. Lock Yohendy Martinez (St. Bonaventure) was immense in keeping that effort going, and flanker Cam Diogiorgio (Iona) was also a standout.

Defensively, no surprise, Iona center Mike Scarcella brought physicality and intensity to the effort.

Met NY U23s Powered By AC Foundation 43
Tries: Scarcella, Lopez 2, Powers, Marro, Johnson, Other
Convs: Powers 4

White Plains XV 24

Met NY U23s Powered By the AC Foundation game-day roster 

1. Jesus Robles
2. Pat Murtagh
3. Jarod Smallwood
4. Yohendy Martinez (AC)
5. John Walsh
6. Liam Anderson
7. Cam Digiorgio
8. Nick Lapponesse
9. Luke Persanis (C)
10. John Powers (AC)
11. Justin Lopez
12. Mike Scarcella    
13. Tom Treussard
14. Justin Johnson
15. Mike Marro

Reserves
16. Luke McDermott
17. John Zeich
18. Anthony Anyonelli
19. Charlie Overton
20. Jack Brandes
21. Joe Philips
22. Ryan Hercules
23. Dylan Lewis
24. Kojo Sheng