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Fairfield Downs Greenwich to Win New Haven 7s

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Fairfield Downs Greenwich to Win New Haven 7s

The Fairfiield Rugby Club HS team Won the New Haven 7s last week, going 4-0-1 and beating Greenwich HS in the final.

Fairfield won their pool by tying Greenwich 2 and beating MidState and Aspetuck. In the other pool, Greenwich 1 beat Fairfield 2, New York, and Staples.

The top two teams from each pool advanced to the semis, but they were seeded according to record, so Greenwich 1 took the top seed with Staples taking seed #4.

In the first semifinal, Greenwich 1 beat a very strong Staples, while in the second, Fairfield had to come from behind to beat Greenwich 2.

In the championship game, Fairfield dominated from the start, winning the opening kickoff and threatening immediately. An untimely knock-on stopped them from scoring, but then Fairfield stole the scrum ball and set up Corbin Smith for the try. Smith added the conversion, too, and Fairfield led 7-0. After a knock-on in the middle of the field by Greenwich, Fairfield had an attacking scrum, which saw flyhalf Aidan Smith make a break and attack the Greenwich defense and put his brother Corbin away for a try in the corner. 12-0 Fairfield.

Fairfield won the restart and that set up a huge run from team captain Brandon Young. Some good rucking at the goal line recycled the ball for Aidan Smith to run it in. Corbin Smith converted and it was 19-0.

Greenwich would strike back with a long run and some good support play by wing Chris Stanback for a try in the corner. But Fairfield replied with some excellent ball movement and good running rugby. They were able to get the ball to their freshman wing, Dante Bailey, who scored just before halftime. With the conversion, Fairfield led 26-5.

Greenwich won the 2nd-half kickoff and went on the attack, but the Fairfield defense forced a turnover inside the 22. From there Corbin Smith made a break and offloaded to Lucas Mayer, who charged up the field to offload back to Smith. He gave it back to Mayer, who then ran through and over the Greenwich defense and made a beautiful offload to a hard-charging Nicky Pesci, who scored. The conversion was good, making it 33-5..

Greenwich did not stop fighting and kept coming out at Fairfield, but Fairfield played outstanding defense and kept forcing Greenwich into mistakes.

Fairfield Rugby Club coaches JT Smith, Rich Gasper, and Karl Rempe celebrated an impressive performance by their players.