New Hampshire Logs Key Win over UMass Lowell in NACR D2

10.05.2024

Paced by a strong first half University of New Hampshire to move to 3-1 in the NACR Men’s D2 competition.

The Wildcats were paced by some impressive elusive running from Jagger Lovely, who scored three tries and was a constant threat. Wing Rudy Seaborn scored two, one on a spectacular kick-pass that he caught on the full, while No. 8 Quinton Martin was a powerhouse in traffic.

That kick-pass from scrumhalf.Colin Harrington ~~flyhalf Josh Patterson~~ to Seaborn opened the scoring and then Martin charged through after a lineout-and-maul to make it, with Patterson’s kicks, 14-0.

UMass Lowell flyhalf John Brabo nudged a smart grubber through that resulted in a RiverHawks try, but after that UNH fullback Luke Famularo started to try to key on those grubbers.

He did exceptionally well with that, preventing any similar tries and in addition it was a Famularo counter-attack that led to Lovely’s second try.

Lowell kept up the pressure with Lovely and Seaborn combining nicely. Lowell, hurt somewhat by a few players missing the game due to illness, were a bit overwhelmed.

But the Riverhawks worked their way back in the second half. A penalty try for UNH (high tackle as the try was about to be scored) didn’t help them and discipline was lacking for both teams—four yellow cards in all. But sparked by the work of Joey Nguyen at scrumhalf Lowell was able to put UNH under some pressure. Nguyen went over off a nice scrum move, and then his break set up a score for flanker Victor Melenciano, who had a big game for the RiverHawks.

Despite Lowell's resurgence, a couple of late tries from UNH finished it off. Flyhalf Josh Pattison kept the Wildcats on an even keel even when the changes were rung, and the pack overall worked hard to make sure that the UNH breaks could be supported. Final score 45-22.

Having learned some lessons from last week’s 62-17 loss to Norwich, New Hampshire remains a difficult team to play.