Saturday, October 30th, 2004
By Josiah Herbert

This past weekend the young Northeastern squad traveled to Dartmouth College to joust it out for playoff birth. The bottom line of the story was whoever won the match was in the playoffs and whoever lost was not so fortunate.

The first half started out all Dogs’. Within several minutes the Dogs put up a try and a conversion to make the match 7 – 0. Good defense on both sides led to Dartmouth being forced into a penalty kick later in that half putting the match at 7 – 3. Feeling the pressure the Dogs marched the ball up field winning lineouts and scrums alike. They pounded down the right hand side of the field sucking in most of the Dartmouth defense. Middler Flyhalf Tom “the tackler” Nardin saw most of the big green’s defense caught up in the action and called for the ball to go left. He had two men in support and dishing it off let the speedy backs dart it in from 20 meters out for a score of 14 – 3. Dartmouth was able to put up another try and Northeastern another field goal to make the score 17 – 10 at halftime in favor of the Dog’s.

The second half was not at all like the first. Dartmouth was able to recognize Northeastern’s weaknesses and capitalize on each of them. Despite a hard fought defense Dartmouth squeezed through the lines three more times to make the score at the final whistle 32-20. One more try and the Dogs would have been awarded a bonus point, putting them in the playoffs for the second year in a row. They were not so fortunate.

The story was again very promising for the “killer B’s and C’s”. Both sides are improving tremendously; each week taking their teammates by surprise. “It’s great to see such a young group of kids play such good rugby. I remember taking the field [on B side] and just going out to hit people. The kids now know what they are doing and are getting remarkably good at it. I am very excited about this club.” quoted senior outside center Josiah Herbert (no coincidence that he is also the author of this article).

The lads took it well as they were able to recognize how well they stick together and how bright the future looks. We would like to thank all of our supporters for helping us make another successful Mad Dog season and we look forward to seeing you all in the spring! Best of luck to Army, Dartmouth, University of Connecticut, and Boston College in representing New England in the Northeast Playoffs.