Brown Does Just Enough to Beat Fairfield
Brown Does Just Enough to Beat Fairfield
Brown managed to hold off Fairfield 24-11 Friday night in a tense game that was perhaps closer than the defending NCR D1 champions desired.
For Brown Head Coach David LaFlamme, this could have been a bit of a statement win, but it wasn’t.
“I’ll take the win but I would have liked to get a bonus point,” LaFlamme told GRR. “We have struggled this season to put together a solid performance.”
Brown has had to deal with injuries, player unavailabilities, and the like and the result has been a starting lineup that isn’t set, and it shows on the field.
“We’re still missing a couple of guys tonight, but that's always going to be par for the course,” said LaFlamme. “I think we think we can be the same team as last year but we're not. I feel we are similar but we can potentially be better... but we're not there yet.”
Brown opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game after an overthrown Fairfield lineout was nabbed by prop Asa Rosenmeier. The Brown forwards consolidated and then the ball went back toward the sideline and center Will Sinfield went over. Raphael Lansonneur made the difficult conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Fairfield had some territory after that but Brown defended fairly well and were able to continually get out of trouble. It wasn’t until about the 21st minute that Brown was really able to spend more time in Fairfield’s 22. Off a scrum move Brown saw No. 8 Antonio Esteves make some ground, offload to scrumhalf Dylan Lewis, who danced around before being tackled. Quickly flanker Henrique Gabriel picked up and carried some Fairfield tacklers with him to go over. Lansonneur’s line-drive kick was just high enough and Brown led 14-0.
Fairfield finally took some points after some pressure, and flyhalf Henry Novicki slotted the long-range kick to make it 14-3.
Moments later Fairfield had themselves back in the game when a big break from center Patrick McHale got the Stags inside the Brown 22, and after a few phases Novicki picked up from the base of the ruck to go in at the corner. Now it was 14-8 with halftime beckoning.
Fairfield fullback Pat Burke made a break and a kick and chase to put Brown under more pressure, and McHale’s pursuit and quickness over the ball produced a penalty and another chance for Novicki.
The flyhalf duly slotted the kick and it was 14-11.
Neither team had much luck getting through the defenses for the remainder of the first half or the first 18 minutes of the second half. Defense was strong, but both sides were making mistakes, especially when a scoring chance was on offer.
Finally a snaking run from center Tito Edjua got Brown inside the Fairfield 22. After a couple of penalties and scrums, Lewis sold a dummy off the back of the scrum and dove over.
Lansonneur converted to make it 21-11.
But Brown couldn’t build on that, and while they added a Lansonneur penalty goal, but didn’t get that key fourth try.
As LaFlamme hinted at, it was a series of good movements from Brown, but not a cohesive whole.
“The forwards did well to work quick ball,” said LaFlamme. “There is talent here but we need to create a new identity from last year. Everyone is committed to getting there. We just need to work harder to get there. The next two weeks will be tough for us with road games at Iona and Dartmouth. It's a different approach when you're fending off teams instead of coming in and flying under the radar. It's a good challenge to have. We're excited to see if we can perform.”
