Our Eagle Impact Rugby Academy player spotlight this week is Jake Feury, longtime back for Middlebury College.

Feury has worked tirelessly to marshal the team through an arduous coaching search and through some difficult years. He was also at the center of Middlebury’s amazing turnaround from 1-4 to a spot in the national playoffs. 

All of that is worth a look, but we also want to give a nod to Feury’s game on Sunday. In that 1st-round national playoff clash with Plymouth State, Middlebury won 26-19. And Feury scored … all 26 Middlebury points.

“The funny thing was, I had decided I wouldn’t kick for points that day,” Feury told Goff Rugby Report. “Warming up I wasn’t feeling good - we’d played a game two days before. But then the game started and I felt pretty good.”

So the center started kicking the goals, and he then scored a try, intercepting a Plymouth State pass and taking it to paydirt. Feury converted to make it 13-0.

“We saw their backs were kind of telegraphing their passes so we thought about trying to intercept a few,” said Feury. “It was part of our strategy.”

Plymouth State stormed back and made it 13-12. Feury kicked two more penalties for a 19-12 lead, only to see Plymouth State score late to tie the game.

Then, another interception. No. 8 Kyle Dickie nabbed a pass and galloped to the goal line. He was caught, but Middlebury recycled and got it wide, where Feury was there to take the offload and score the winner. To be sure, he hit the conversion for good measure.

“It’s amazing,” said Feury, who is delaying his trip to France for this weekend’s playoffs - he is going to France to watch his sister, Tess, play for the USA. “I entered college, then played football, and back to rugby, and then a semester off when I went abroad. It’s been a lot of ups and downs. I was really bummed when we were 1-4, but then we came back and it’s a huge relief to me to know that when I leave this team, we have built something.”

Feury’s hard work, and of course scoring all the points in a playoff game, has had a lot to do with that.