DRFC Men at North Penn Match Report – 2017-09-16

The weather was unseasonably muggy and warm by kickoff and both teams were feeling the heat. With a slightly delayed kickoff and the beating sun it was tough to keep the team ‘up’ leading into the kickoff and the flatness of the Dragons showed. Under ten minutes in North Penn capitalized on some poor defensive shifting and a wonderfully lucky bounce of the ball and the number 9 kicked through the backline and caught the ball on the bounce as he fell into the try zone. Try unconverted.

5-0 North Penn

The Iron Lions energy was palpable but the Dragons were only just awaking.

It didn’t take long for the Dragons to answer back, this time the luck went their way as Kevin Hockings played the interception and the poor pass from the North Penn backline bounced right into his hands. No one ever had a chance as is so often the case when Hockings touches the ball.

Conversion good by Dylan Hamilton. 7-5 Doylestown.

From here Doylestown put their foot on the throttle and didn’t let up for the rest of the game. The score was 31-5 at halftime and when the final whistle blew the final score was 62-5.

The defense was aggressive and forced turnover ball throughout the day. The discipline that Doylestown struggled with in week 1 went out the window as everyone focused on penalty avoidance. Line breaks were aplenty and support was often there in droves and the offload was on for most of the afternoon.

Dylan Hamilton converted 4-6 conversions while Oliver Samuels went 1-2 after late game substitutions. Michael Bondar went 0-2 on two tough attempts.

The Doylestown coaching staff was able, once again, to give great run to the reserves while still keeping the pace and quality of play very high. First year men’s player Ethan Knapp made great strides in his first minutes of A-side rugby and was a force to be reckoned with in the scrums.

Three trys were scored by First XV man of the match Matt Frederick from the tightead prop position in his first start for Doylestown RFC. Hocking added one more to complete the brace and Michael Bondar added two of his own. The scoring was rounded out with one apiece from each of Eric French, Nick Lykon, and Steve Kornock.

The Second XV was equally dynamic as they took down the North Penn B’s in limited action ahead of the Saracens-Falcons English Premiership game in Chester, PA. Man of the match for the Second XV was Maslin Pierre who showed off extreme athleticism and field awareness as he cut up the defense repeatedly for a no nonsense hat trick within 40 minutes of rugby.

Come out and join us next week as we take on Lancaster Roses at home at 1pm.

Come on you Dragons!