Pelham Downs Rye to Finalize NY Playoff Matchups
Pelham Downs Rye to Finalize NY Playoff Matchups
In a game played as a curtain-raiser for the local Major League Rugby game, Pelham HS defeated Rye HS 27-12 in Rugby NY action.
This was a winner-take-(almost)-all game in the league—Xavier, Rye, and Pelham were all tied for 1st in the MetNY league. With Xavier having a game in hand and having beaten both Rye and Pelham, they are almost certain of 1st place. So the winner of the Pelham-Rye match would be the one to join them in the D1 state championships.
Rye, coming off their first visit to the Boys HS Rugby National Championships were missing some key players after a demanding previous week. Pelham, however, were also dealing with injuries and unavailabilities.
Pelham scored first with a nicely-executed tam try linking backs and forwards. They tried to build on their 7-0 lead but possession did not yield more points and in fact it was Rye that responded with try to make it 7-5.
Back came Pelham, controlling possession and running in two unconverted tries to lead 17-5 at halftime.
Pelham kept it up in the second half, scoring right after the break, leveraging their strength in the scrum. Rye scored with about five minutes to go and Pelham answered to finish it off 27-12.
Pelham got solid performances from prop Mike Rooney and flanker Eamonn O'Reilly with No. 8 Davitt Barrett also showing well.
Scrumhalf Mike Sample continues to play well and the Pelham backs, especially Laszlo Somlay and fullback Sam Wallach were quite effective. For Rye, center Gio Cavatoni was dangerous and their back row, anchored by Joseph Cavatoni and Sjef Smits, caused Pelham plenty of problems.
Playoffs
So now Rugby NY will host its state finals on Saturday and Sunday June 10-11 at Siena College in Loudonville, NY.
Due to geography Rugby NY is split into two main areas of competition, Upstate NY and Metropolitan NY. Upstate covers Albany to Buffalo and the Southern Tier. Met NY covers the New York City Metropolitan area (NYC, Long Island and Westchester County). Teams from each region qualify for States through league play.
Both divisions were extremely tight at the top this year. We alredy covered Met NY other than to point out that Play Rugby bypassed Fordham Prep for the final playoff spot after beating St. Anthony's behind Ricky Corbett's 13 points and nine tries from eight players.
In upstate action Kenmore went undefeated to earn the top spot. Along the way they had a couple of tight games, beating Canisius (2nd place finisher) by six points and defeating McQuad (3rd place) by four. Canisius finished 2nd with just he loss to Kenmore and McQuaid Jesuit took third.
Rounding out the top 4 was Corning Rugby Club. Corning's record showed just how tight the teams are in the middle of the division. They defeated a Syracuse Silverbacks team by just two points to earn that final playoff spot.
Final standings:
Met NY
Xavier 7-0
Pelham 6-1
Rye 5-2
Play Rugby 4-3
Fordham Prep 3-4
Harvey 2-5
St Anthony’s 1-6
New Rochelle 0-7
Upstate
Kenmore 6-0
Canisius 5-1
McQuaid 4-2
Corning 3-3
Syracuse 2-4
Fairport 1-5
Grand Island 0-6
Here are the semifinal machups:
D1 Tier 1
Xavier v Canisius
Kenmore v Pelham
D1 Tier 2
Rye v Corning
McQuaid Jesuit v Play Rugby
Third place games and Finals to be played on Sunday.