The Middlesex Barbarians absolutely thrashed Montauk to win the Northeast DII club championship, taking the Long Island club down 53-0 Sunday in Newport, RI.

The match began slowly as both sides slammed into each other, trying to establish physical supremacy.

The Barbarians were put under pressure early, but their defense held, and as the match progressed the Middlesex forwards started to counter-ruck with some effectiveness.

That produced some turnovers, and when the Middlesex backs had space, they punished their opponents.

Outside Center Matt Johnson sliced through the Montauk defense at 20 minutes to start the scoring, and then a few minutes later No. 8 Matt Gottbrecht picked off a pass for a 50-meter run.

The pace started to tell on Montauk, and the Middlesex backs raced in two more times.

The Barbarians backs’ speed and transition offense netted plenty of points in the second half. Scrumhalf Dan Mullane kept the offense moving and his co-MVP, flanker John Kokinda, was a monster on defense and scored 13 points.

"We had been waiting all season to put it all together,” said Head Coach Josh Smith. “This weekend we played three great halves of rugby. Our depth was huge this weekend using 23 players each day."