Doylestown Rugby Football Club News – April 14, 2025

Men’s Team

Doylestown Rugby’s Men’s Team traveled to Brandywine on Saturday, April 12th 2025 for their first friendly match after losing to Philadelphia Whitemarsh in the EPRU Semifinals. Traveling with only 18 players, missing some starters, and having people play out of position, the Dragons managed to secure a road victory, 33-19 over Brandywine. Man of the Match was Brian Kelnhofer and Hard Hat Player of the Match was Shane Hill (for his first time playing flanker).

High School Girls’ Team

The Doylestown Rugby Academy High School Girls’ Team traveled to Aldie, VA to participate in the Gonzaga Rugby Classic 2025 on April 12-13, 2025. The girls went 3-0, winning the tournament, and they beat their opponents by a combined score of 118-7. Try scorers for the weekend were Jocelyn Terry (5), Leah Cipollo (4), Sana’a Lunon (3), Siena Accardi (3), Sydney Haddon (2), and Nolah Flynn (1). Flynn converted 14 conversions. Lunon was awarded the Hit Chain Award for her great tackling and Flynn was named MVP of the Tournament for her fantastic ability to make plays and set up plays so that her teammates could play their best. The girls will take on Downingtown in an away match on Sunday, April 27, 2025.

Photos attached: Photo of team celebrating championship win
Photo of Sana’a Lunon and Nolah Flynn

High School Boys’ Team

The boys took off this weekend for their Ireland Tour. Looking forward to hearing how they competed and all the fun they had when they return.

U14 Boys’ Team

On April 13, 2025, the Doylestown Rugby Academy U14 Team hosted both the Chambersburg Youth Rugby Team and a traveling squad from Silver Spring, Maryland, the Maryland Exiles Youth Rugby Team.

In their first match of the day, Doylestown took on the Chambersburg Youth Rugby Team in each team’s third RugbyPA league match. Chambersburg featured big, powerful, and hard running forwards in their pack. Doylestown relied on the combination of thunder from the fleet-footed forwards and crafty and quick running from the backs. The two teams battled to a 19-12 halftime score, with Doylestown holding on to a slim lead. In the second half, the Young Dragons continued their successful ways by scoring 19 more points compared to just 5 more points for Chambersburg. When the final whistle blew, it was Doylestown that was triumphant by a score of 40 – 17! Try scorers were: Jonah Khanan (2), Jameson Meehan (1), Michael Farias (1), Maika Heimbach (1), and Brady McReynolds (1). Conor Cassidy kicked 5 conversions. Chambersburg had 3 tries and 1 conversion.

In the second match of the day, Doylestown hosted a young, touring team from Silver Spring, Maryland; the Maryland Exiles Youth Rugby Team. This game was a friendly match between two teams that rarely, if ever, have played each other on the Youth Rugby level! This friendly match allowed the Young Dragons to welcome back players who played for them last season, but due to player shortages in other levels of the Doylestown Rugby Academy structure meant that some of the older U14 players had to play up a level on the U16 team. These former teammates were reunited for the first time since they collectively won a RugbyPA Championship last year in May, 2024. The teammates were very excited to play with each other once again!

The first half started out with Doylestown continuing their successful play from their first match of the day by scoring two quick tries and leading 12-0. However, the Maryland Exiles team may have been young, but they were very skilled and quick, They scored 3 tries in response to Doylestown’s 2 tries and the host team found themselves down before a final score from former U14 player from last season, Brendan Frey. This made the game 19-17 in favor of the Young Dragons. After some restructuring of the lineup, the Doylestown coaching staff decided to run out their regular U14 player lineup for the current season because they have been playing and working together throughout this season. The coaching staff also figured, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” so they played more of their current team’s players in the second half. This decision paid dividends for Doylestown. They ran in 4 more tries in the second half to the Maryland Exiles’ one try. The final score saw the Doylestown U14s notch another win, albeit a tough win from a worthy and developing opponent in a friendly match: 41 – 24! Try scorers were: Jonah Khanan (2), Mario Palena (2), Carter Filoon (1), Brendan Frey (1), and Brady McReynolds (1). Conversions were kicked by Conor Cassidy (2) and Jameson Meehan (1). The Maryland Exiles had 4 tries and 2 conversions.

The Doylestown Rugby Academy U14 Team will play their fourth RugbyPA league match on
Sunday, April 27, 2025 against Delaware County Youth Rugby (Media, PA).

For more information about Doylestown Rugby Football Club, go to www.doylestownrugby.com