Neuqua Logs Victory in Illinois
Neuqua Logs Victory in Illinois
After a successful tour to Phoenix with matches against Tempe and Arizona Bobcats, Illinois HS club Neuqua returned home to take on Illinois opposition.
The game with Notre Dame de La Salette was called off due to weather, but Neuqua was able to play the Fox Valley Predators and and won 59-17.
Down three starters due to injuries, the Wildcats moved some players around nicely and did well to move the ball and find space on attack.
Prop Andrew Cohen, flanker Alex Patrascu, and wings Joe Quinn and Nick Meger all scored tries. Fullback Parker Kurtenbach scored two and center Matt Chevalier added three, as well as seven conversions for 29 points.
Fox Valley played hard throughout with a punishing pick-and-go brand of rugby and also took advantage of Neuqua errors to punch in three tries of their own with some excellent attacking movements from sophomore fullback Brian Scales. He was supported by No. 8 Joe Petit and flanker Luke Curtis. Scales and Petit scored tries as did hooker Aidan Lowe with Christian Morgan adding the conversion.
"Going in we were a bit optimistic," said Predator Head Coach Rich Belanich. "We were aware of the success Neuqua had on tour, and this would be a big first game for us. Defensively we were a mess and didn't have an answer for their game speed. Offensively we had success and were able to execute parts of our game plan."
"Fox Valley is a talented team but I think we certainly benefited from having taken the squad on tour and were able to build on the foundation from that," said Neuqua Head Coach John Chevalier. "The boys executed well in attack but we've got some work to do defensively to improve our tackling and get set quicker. We were very pleased with the efforts of our finishers to come in and keep the momentum
