Doylestown Rugby Football Club News – May 18, 2026
High School Boys’ Team
The Doylestown Rugby Academy High School Boys’ Team played Gregory the Great Academy on Sunday, May 17, 2026, in the RugbyPA State Championship match at the beautiful campus of Penn State Berks. This was a rematch of last year’s State Championship that was won by Doylestown by 7 points. Doylestown started the match extremely strong after catching the opening kickoff and pounding their way down the field with over a dozen phases before senior captain Marco Burns crashed over the line to make the score 7-0 just 4 minutes into the match. As is customary, GGA answered back with a try of their own to make the score 7-5 13 minutes into the match. Doylestown junior fullback Louie Cipollo dazzled with the ball in his hands all match long. At the 17-minute mark, Cipollo dashed through the line making several defenders miss and then offloaded to scrumhalf Jackson Reilly who is always relentless in his support. Reilly carried the last 20 meters untouched to push the score to 14-5. Centers Liam Hoey and Nick Miletto followed with long scoring runs by gashing the GGA defense out wide to close out the first half 28-5 for Doylestown.
GGA opened the scoring in the second half to cut the lead to 28-12, and it was once again a match! Junior prop Gavin Sailer crashed over the line the to make the score 35-12 at the 15-minute mark of the second half and Doylestown knew then that they did the job. GGA and Doylestown traded tries with replacement prop/impact sub-Chris Imperato touching down the last one for Doylestown. That made it 6 tries for 6 different players with 3 being backs and 3 being forwards. And Senior flyhalf Jamie Weir nailed all 6 conversions with his golden boot. The final whistle sounded, and it was a well-earned 42-17 victory for the repeat State Champions!
Try Scorers for Doylestown were: Marco Burns (hooker), Jackson Reilly (scrumhalf), Liam Hoey (inside center), Nick Miletto (outside center), Gavin Sailer (prop), and Chris Imperato (prop). Jamie Weir kicked 6 conversions. The Man of the Match was Marco Burns (hooker). Gregory the Great Academy had 3 tries and 1 conversion.
U16 Boys’ Team
The Doylestown Rugby Academy U16 Boys’ Team played LaSalle College High School U16 on Sunday, May 17, 2026, in the RugbyPA State Championship match at the beautiful campus of Penn State Berks. This was a rematch from mid-April when the two teams played a tightly-contested match at LaSalle. Doylestown started the match extremely strong by quickly moving the ball out wide to Justin Grosso who finished his shifty running with a try to start the game. Unfortunately, Doylestown was not able to convert the try, making the score, Doylestown 5 – LaSalle 0 – just 2 minutes into the match. The young Dragons were not finished because just 4 minutes later, Brady McReynolds crossed the LaSalle tryline for another score. This game seemed primed for Doylestown to take control of the match. However, the LaSalle defense tightened up from this point forward. The two teams got close to each other’s goal lines, but each team’s defense kept the other team from scoring any more points in the first half. This made the halftime score: Doylestown 10 – LaSalle 0.
The two teams started the second half similarly to how the first half had ended. Each team got close to the other’s tryline, but both teams were unable to score for 10 minutes into the second half. Finally, Doylestown worked the ball out to their wing, Jonah Khanan, who faked left and then faked right, and finally dove into the corner of the LaSalle tryzone to make the score, Doylestown 15 – LaSalle 0. LaSalle answered back with a try of their own just minutes later. The scoreboard read, Doylestown 15 – LaSalle 5. Both teams continued their scrappy defense for the next 8-9 minutes of the game. However, a LaSalle miscue created a penalty situation for the young Dragons directly in front of the LaSalle goal posts.
Instead of attempting to break the solid LaSalle defense once more by running the ball, Doylestown elected to seal the game with a penalty kick with just under 4 minutes to play in the game. Despite efforts by LaSalle to “psych-out” the Doylestown kicker, it was Doylestown captain, Jake Beckenhauer, who calmly and surely knocked the penalty kick over for 3 additional points. Both teams traded offensive blows from this point forward, but the team defense for both squads would not allow another point to be scored. Soon enough, the final whistle blew and it was the young Doylestown Dragons U16 Rugby Team that was the RugbyPA U16 Division State Champions for 2026, by a score of 18-5. Try scorers for Doylestown were Justin Grosso (Outside Center), Brady McReynolds (Prop), and Jonah Khanan (Wing). Jake Beckenhauer made one penalty kick. LaSalle had one unconverted try. The Men of the Match were Nick Warren (Inside Center) and Justin Grosso (Outside Center), both of whom were selected for their tenacious tackling and solid ball carrying which kept the dangerous LaSalle backline out of the tryzone for the majority of the game.
Doylestown finished their U16 Season with a 10-3 record and were undefeated in RugbyPA play. Their only losses were to high school second sides (or B-Sides) from New York, Virginia, and North Carolina that included juniors and seniors on their sides. The Doylestown U16s consisted mainly of freshman players, with 4 sophomores, and 3 8th graders playing on their squad.
For more information about Doylestown Rugby Football Club, go to www.doylestownrugby.com