Wake Opens Conference Play with Loss at Clemson

On a perfect night for rugby in Clemson, SC, Wake Forest opened its Atlantic Coast Rugby League season with a frustrating 34-10 loss to the Clemson Tigers. Wake Forest was plagued all night by turnovers, specifically at the breakdown, and Clemson took quick advantage of turnover ball, with four tries coming directly from Wake Forest failing to retain possession in the tackle.

Clemson's first try came when senior wing Drew Chadwick lost the ball in contact and it squirted into the hands of the Tigers' speedy wing who sped 30 meters untouched into the tryzone. The conversion was missed and Clemson lead 5-0. Clemson struck again after a disorganized Wake offensive possession led to Clemson turning over sophomore Drew Merhmann. Three quick passes later, and Clemson's wing was in for his second of the night. This time the conversion was good and Wake trailed 12-0 midway through the first half.

Wake Forest had the bulk of possession for the remainder of the half, but squandered numerous scoring opportunities. Fullback Steve McMillen broke a 50 meter run down the sideline but was left without support after a try-saving tackle by a Clemson back and the opportunity was wasted. Twice Wake Forest lost possession less than 5 meters from Clemson's tryline and Clemson was able to clear the danger. The halftime whistle sounded with Clemson holding a 12-0 lead.

The second half opened with neither team gaining much of an advantage in either possession or territory. But Wake soon began exhibiting its poor habits from the first half and two turnovers resulted in two quick Clemson tries and Wake facing a daunting 22-0 deficit. With the game seemingly in hand, Wake was able to finally cross the tryline, as flyhalf Ben Cohen made a nice looping run to touchdown in the corner and bring the score to 22-5. Any hopes of a Wake comeback were dashed, however, by some spectacular play by Clemson's scrumhalf. His sniping runs off the base of the ruck and scrum resulted in two more tries and an insurmountable 34-5 lead for the Tigers. Wake Forest managed a consolation try at full time from freshman center Ryan Tacon to make the final 34-10.

"The game I think was probably closer than the score would indicate," said Wake Forest head coach Patrick Kane. "There's no question that the difference was our turnovers in the tackle and Clemson's impressive ability to immediately take advantage of the opportunities we gave them. The good thing is that our problems from Friday are fixable, and you can rest assured that we'll be working all week to fix them before we face Maryland this weekend."

Wake senior Ross Hilton was very complimentary of Clemson after the match. "I think our team now is much improved over the team we had last year that beat Clemson in Carolinas League play. So the fact that they beat us like that tonight shows how much better they've gotten over the past year. We need to learn from this loss and then put it behind us and look forward. If things go right, maybe we'll get another shot at these guys down the road."

Wake Forest Varsity vs Clemson

1. Ty Pierce, So.
2. Jeff Millar, Jr. (Chris Ryan, Jr. @ 70)
3. Nick Conte, Jr.
4. Brendan Shea, Jr.
5. Christian Jewett, Sr.
6. Drew Mehrmann, So. (Matt McCurdy, Fr. @ 40)
7. Ross Hilton, Sr.
8. Hunter Lostan, Sr.
9. Johnny McMurray, So.
10. Ben Cohen, Jr.
11. Drew Chadwick, Sr. (Jim Kavalec, So. @ 65)
12. James Watson, Fr. (Franco Cima, Fr. @ 40)
13. Ryan Tacon, Fr.
14. Brandon Turner, Jr.
15. Steve McMillen, Sr.

Tries: Cohen, Tacon

In a shortened Junior Varsity game, Wake Forest exacted some measure of revenge with a 19-0 victory. Tries were scored by junior scrumhalf Will Hank, freshman lock Matt McCurdy, and freshman wing Sean Barrett.

Wake Forest takes on University of Maryland on Saturday as the featured match during Wake's annual High School Rugby Showcase. Kickoff will be at 2pm. Maryland is coming off a last minute heartbreaking 23-20 loss at North Carolina, so both teams will be pressing to avoid an 0-2 start in conference play.

Wake Forest Men's Rugby Season Preview

Wake Forest Enters ACRL Play With Determination

The Wake Forest men's rugby team will play its inaugural Atlantic Coast Rugby League game tomorrow night against Clemson, who is undefeated and ranked #15 in the country in Division I by Rugby Magazine. This will be the first ever official Division I game for the Demon Deacons, who only 4 years ago were a Division III team.

Wake comes into the season with an excellent mix of veteran leadership and talented newcomers. The forwards will be lead by seniors Ross Hilton (lock), Christian Jewett (lock), and Hunter Lostan (#8), and the pack will be bolstered by the return of junior flanker/lock Brendan Shea, who played all of last year at flyhalf after injuries ravaged the Wake Forest backline.

Ty Pierce will lead from the front at Tighthead Prop

Sophomore Ty Pierce, who gained invaluable experience playing for the South U-20 select side in November will be the first choice at loosehead prop, while junior Nick Conte will anchor the scrum at tighthead. Jeff Millar will try to fill the shoes of graduated four year starter Mike Duffy at hooker. Juniors Chris Ryan and Justen Robinette, sophomore Matt Tucker, and talented freshman Bryce Lambert provide front row depth.

Hilton, Jewett, and Shea will rotate in the second row, with freshmen Matt McCurdy, Matt Gray, Robert Elmore, and Paul Shumaker all improving and pushing for playing time.

The youth movement continues in the loose forwards, where freshman McCurdy and Liam McIntyre, and sophomore Drew Mehmann will all see time with the first side.

Wake Forest boasts two excellent scrumhalves in sophomore Johnny McMurray and junior Will Hank. McMurray was a full time starter at fullback last year and will likely play both 9 and 15 this spring. McMurray and Hank will be feeding the ball to junior flyhalf Ben Cohen. After missing his entire sophomore year due to injury, Cohen has shown signs of brilliance at #10, including a game winning chip and chase try in Wake Forest's preseason victory against University of Mary Washington last weekend. Cohen will be ably backed up by sophomore Rob Kelly, who donned the #10 jersey for Wake during the fall season while Cohen rehabbed.

The stregnth of the Wake Forest team most definitely lies in its centers and outside backs. Freshman James Watson and sophomore Jim Kavalec, both also players on the Wake Forest ice hockey team, are powerful runners who will see time at inside center. Freshmen Ryan Tacon will anchor the backline at outside center, while seniors Drew Chadwick and Steve McMillen and junior Brandon Turner comprise a back three loaded with pace. Turner also joined Ty Pierce on the U-20 South team in November. Meanwhile, freshman Franco Cima, a former age-grade European sprint record holder, is an attacking force who can and will play anywhere from 11 to 15. Freshmen Sean Barrett, Steven Hemric, and Drew Ammons are all solid newcomers who add considerable depth to an already deep and talented Wake Forest backline.

Freshman Center Ryan Tacon on the run against South Carolina

As was seen in Wake Forest's late fall exhibition results (losses to South Carolina and North Carolina State), the Demon Deacons struggled to play to their stregnths against bigger, more physical opponents. A rigourous offseason stregnth and conditioning program will hopefully close the gap in this regard-stregnth and conditioning coach Trent Justice was mostly pleased with the work put in by the players over semester break-but the ACRL schedule does the Demon Deacons no favors as they begin with three straight games against nationally ranked opponents (#15 Clemson, #14 Maryland, and #18 Virginia Tech). Said head coach Patrick Kane, "We will know right away if we have a realistic shot at winning this league. Go at least 2-1 in our first three game and we're in good shape. Anything less than that, and we'll need some serious luck and help from other teams to finish in the top 2 and make the ACRL Championship game in Charlotte."

The "Road to Charlotte" kicks off tomorrow at 8pm. Follow realtime score updates on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WakeForestRugby.

Details Set for Annual Wake Forest High School Rugby Showcase

High School All-American Jack McAuliffe leads a powerhouse Gonzaga team into Winston-Salem.

The Fourth Annual Wake Forest High School Rugby Showcase is set for March 5-6 on the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC. Returning to the Showcase from last year are 2010 USA High School National Championship Runner-Up Gonzaga College High School (Washington D.C.), Hyde Leadership Charter School (Washington, D.C.), and the East Chapel Hill Highlanders. Filling out the Showcase are Catholic High School from Charlotte, NC, who finished 4th in the country in the 2010 USA Rugby High School National Championships, Matthews U-19 (Matthews, NC) and Triad U-19 (Greensboro, NC). The feature match of the weekend will be an Atlantic Coast Rugby League contest between Wake Forest and the University of Maryland.

The schedule for the weekend is as follows:

Sat. Mar. 5:

9am- Hyde A vs Catholic A
10:30- Gonzaga B vs Catholic B
12pm- Hyde B v. Matthews U-19 B
2pm- Wake Forest Varsity v. Maryland Varsity
3:30pm- Wake Forest JV v Maryland JV
4:30pm- East Chapel Hill vs Gonzaga A

Sun. Mar. 6:

8:30am: Hyde A v East Chapel Hill
10am: Gonzaga A vs Catholic A
11:30am: Gonzaga B vs Triad

Wake Forest Sloppy, but Victorious, against University of Mary Washington

A late try from junior flyhalf Ben Cohen allowed Wake Forest to escape with a 26-21 victory over a young, but well-coached and physical side from University of Mary Washington on a windy Saturday in Fredricksburg, VA.

Wake Forest started out the game in dominant fashion, racing out to a 14-0 lead behind converted tries from sophomore scrumhalf Johnny McMurray and senior #8 Hunter Lostan. But mental mistakes and an inability to stop the powerful Mary Washington forwards saw the Demon Deacons actually trailing 21-14 midway through the second half. A try from junior wing Brandon Turner in the corner brought Wake to within 2. The final ten minutes were played inside Wake's attacking third, and finally, with five minutes remaining, Cohen spotted a gap in the UMW backline, chipped through and gathered in the ball to go in untouched under the posts to give Wake the lead and ultimately the win.

Coach Kane said of the match, "Mary Washington was very physical, and we have a tendency to struggle against those types of teams. They attacked well with their forwards off the fringes of the breakdown, and we didn't defend well. After the first 20 minutes, when we were dictating style of play, they started asserting their style and we never got comfortable in our attacking pattern again. We will look at the video and see what we can fix before our ACRL opener in Clemson on Friday."

Wake Forest Varsity Lineup vs UMW

1. Ty Pierce, So.
2. Jeff Millar, Jr.
3. Nick Conte, Jr.
4. Ross Hilton, Sr. (Matt McCurdy, Fr. @ 60)
5. Christian Jewett, Sr.
6. Drew Mehrmann, So. (Liam McIntyre, Fr. @ 40)
7. Brendan Shea, Jr.
8. Hunter Lostan, Sr.
9. Johnny McMurray, So.
10. Ben Cohen, Jr.
11. Drew Chadwick, Sr.
12. Jim Kavalec, So. (Franco Cima, Fr. @ 40, James Watson, Fr. @ 50)
13. Ryan Tacon, Fr.
14. Brandon Turner, Jr.
15. Robert Kelley, So. (Will Hank, Jr. @ 65)

Tries: McMurray, Lostan, Turner, Cohen
Conv. McMurray (3)

The JV match featured even more of an exciting finish than the varsity match, with freshman Drew Ammons scoring a try in the corner in sudden death overtime to give Wake Forest a 36-31 win. UMW's JV side had scored a converted try on the last play of regulation to tie the game at 31 apiece, and the teams agreed to play it out in overtime. Wake Forest had two tries from freshman Ammons, as well as tries from freshmen Liam McIntyre, James Watson, and Alex Rosell. Freshman wing Sean Barrett hit 3 of 5 conversions.

Wake Forest plays Clemson on the road on Friday night in the first ever ACRL game for both teams.

Wake Forest Picked to Finish 6th in ACRL Coaches Poll

http://www.rugbyamerica.org/2011/02/18/2011-atlantic-coast-rugby-league-preview/