UMass remains atop the East Coast Rugby Conference after another big win, this week 65-7 over Northeastern.

Co-captain Thomas Thekaekara and prop Derek Wagener both scored two tries in an overall strong effort from the Minutemen. Australian exchange student Joe Jenkins kicked for 15 points and added a try, and he has been a useful injection of talent for UMass at flyhalf.

“We know we’re going to have tougher games coming up,” said Thekaekara. “But we’re using these games to work together better. We’ve shown ourselves that we can score if we really try. Sometimes we struggle to keep our phase play alive. But we’re becoming more and more comfortable with what we’re doing.

New England College rebounded from their opening-week loss to AIC to defeat Fairfield 57-10 Saturday.

The Lions were missing three key starters, but some others took the load - center Isaiah Lopez was a force, while Gavin Devine, Ky Young, and Ian Luciano also played well in the rout. 

“We were able to get some young players on the field and that was good,” said Head Coach Jeremy Treece. “But we gave up a lot of penalties.”

In fact, repeated scrum infractions seemed to confuse NEC and get them a yellow card for their pains. Still NEC fixed some of the ball-handling issues that plagued them against AIC.

“A lot of our guys are very young, but it’s been positive and we feel we belong [in the ECRC].”

Meanwhile, Middlebury won a wild game 47-39 over UConn

“UConn is a much improved team,” said Middlebury co-captain and lock Kyle Dickey. “They had good launch on their defense and they had a really good backline.”

UConn also kept the scoreboard moving thanks to outstanding kicking of Liam Coll.

But Middlebury did well, also, scrummaging nicely with Dickey and freshman Ben Manoukian in the second row, and their lineouts functioned. When Middlebury realized they could burn UConn out wide with their speedy wings, they started to get tries.

Back from injury, All American back Jake Feury was a force, and newbie wing Ted Benge scored two tries. 

“We did well finding space, but we knocked on far too much,” said Dickey.

The Boston College Eagles opened their ECRC account with a 74-0 shutout of Albany. AIC, which won its opening conference game last week, spent an off-week throttling Dartmouth 74-10.