Fairfield, Brown Take Wins in Liberty
Fairfield, Brown Take Wins in Liberty
Brown and Fairfield won two key games in the Liberty Conference Saturday.
Brown took a big step toward being top dog in the Liberty NCR D1 with a 31-23 defeat of Iona Saturday.
Both teams entered the game undefeated in the conference.
Brown’s defense did well to frustrate Iona, especially in the first half where they took a 24-9 lead.
While Brown Head Coach David LaFlamme said his team kind of let their foot off the pedal a bit in the second half, he was, overall, pleased.
“It was food to get a win with a better performance this week than last week,” he said.
It was a wet day and Brown’s plan was always to win the battle up front and play a smart, controlled game. The conditions, therefore, helped Brown, said LaFlamme.
“It was ‘hang on to the football’ type of weather,” he said. The conditions helped us. We knew Iona had some weapons that we had to stay away from. We didn’t do too well controlling how we played ealy on and they kicked three penalties on us. But once we got our forth try at the 50th minute we could breathe a bit easier.”
Still two late tries from Iona closed it up and Iona Head Coach Paul Burke said his team just needed a bit more time.”
Next up for Brown is Dartmouth, a game that also serves as the Ivy League championship match.
Dartmouth was defeated by Fairfield 19-8 on Saturday in a game that stopped a three-game skid for the Stags.
Constant rain led to several handling errors by both sides and while each team threatened early, several knocks-ons kept both from crossing the tryline.
“Dartmouth opened the scoring in the 12th minute when fullback Luke Morrow converted a penalty from the 22. Fairfield countered with junior flyhalf Henry Novicki breaking through and feeding freshman center Patrick McHale to cross over. McHale added another try shortly thereafter on the third phase from a Fairfield scrum, and Novicki converted to make it 12-3.
Fairfield added one more try in the first half when junior wing Connor McCabe raced over in the corner off a quick tap. Novicki was good on this conversion too and Fairfield led 19-3.
The second half opened with Dartmouth getting on the front foot and winning numerous lineouts, including stealing a few Fairfield lineouts, as well. Early in the second half Fairfield wing Luca Strazzolini capped off a multiple-phase movement, helped along by a series of Fairfield penalties, to score Dartmouth’s only try. The rest of the half saw Dartmouth spend a lot of time in Fairfield’s half, aided by indiscipline by the Stags, who received two yellow cards during the game. But the possession and territory didn’t pay off as Fairfield’s defense held.
As a result of these games, Fairfield improves to 4-3, Dartmouth drops to 3-2, while Iona drops to 3-1. Brown now sits at 4-0. Iona’s postponed game with Siena from September is now slated to be played this coming Wednesday, October 18.
