On a crisp Friday evening the North Raleigh Red Hawks set off to play the Clayton Copperheads in a North Carolina varsity matchup battle that has been going on ever since these two clubs first came up. Some would call it a rivalry.

The Red Hawks are truly a young team as they have four 9th graders playing for their varsity team this season: flanker Aadil Mehasanewala, scrumhalf, George O’Brien, lock Frank Lewis, and center Ben Watson. The future looks bright with these freshmen already playing varsity and continuing their rugby career over the next three years. The Red Hawks are led by their senior captain AJ Lanier.

Key injuries to Evan Thomas, Jackson Cranor, Tyler Gray, and Jonah Fanuef made the Red Hawks dig deep into the depth chart, bringing several players up from JV. 

Rucking and tackling well, the Red Hawks did not lose the ball in contact and held on even when two yellow cards put the Red Hawks down to 13 players. Midway through the first half, Raleigh player Scotty Lindsey breaks away from Clayton’s defense for two consecutive tries. Flyhalf Kris Thomas makes both conversions to put the Red Hawks up 14-0 going into halftime. No. 8 Caleb Fanuef, who made very good progress in the eightman picks, was unfortunately forced to sit out the rest of the game due to a head injury.

In the second half, things started to click for Clayton as wing Preston Slater scored two tries to tie the game at 14-14. The Red Hawks maintained their structure and pushed the ball down the field. The heart of the forwards propelled the Red Hawks, pod after pod. 9th-grader George O’Brien broke away for a solo try putting Raleigh back up 21-14. 

Clayton scored another try with eight minutes remaining in the match, but could not get the conversion over, leaving the score at 21-19.

With the game on an edge, prop Koby Baker booted it downfield on the kickoff. Clayton wing Grant Kettner caught it, but was hunted down by Red Hawks flankers Aadil Mehasanewala and Julian Nivar. Those two jarred the ball loose, and from the ensuing scrum, the Red Hawks won the ball and tried to run out the clock. However, as time ran out North Raleigh knocked the ball forward, and gave Clayton one last scrum. Clayton won the ball and hooker Mason Middleton charged downfield, only to be met by Villeda and Mehasanewala. The flankers force Middleton to throw a high pass that soars over the head of Slater and into touch, ending the game.