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By RUGBYMag.com Staff
Mystic River and Life University will face each other Sunday in the men’s DI club national quarterfinals after both won their first-round matches Saturday in Columbia SC.
Mystic had to work for it, edging a determined Detroit Tradesmen side 30-20. Captain Jamie Green, Will Dow and Dimitri Efthimiou all scored tries and Chris Tofte added two for the Boston-area club, while Pat Doherty added a conversion and a penalty.
“We did OK but there were some things we need to work on,” Green told RUGBYMag.com. “More stuff we were able to do on the training ground but couldn’t really execute in the game.”
Green said the pack set the platform for his squad, and that proved the difference. Wing Dimitri Efthimiou came back after a hamstring injury but did have to leave the game earl. He will be evaluated for Sunday’s match.
And Mystic will need everything they have to face a very young but effective Life University squad slammed New Haven 59-12.
“We wanted to come out strong early and deny them the ball,” said Life lock Tyler Salamon. “They have a pretty fit team and we just wanted to do the basics right, keep possession and play good defense.”
In a game where Life played well as a group and didn’t have any one player stand out, Kyle Grossheider, Nick Dimichele, Cornelius Dirksen, Antoine Blanchet, and Jason Bloom all got on the scoresheet for Life.
As many as 12 of the starting XV for Life were college undergrads. That, said Salamon, is both an advantage and a difficulty.
“It can be tough because we’re playing against men’s clubs,” said the college sophomore. “But at the same time most of us are around the same age, and we come together a little tighter because of that. We’re just bond better as a team. The important thing today was we weren’t looking ahead to anything else; we just played our game.”
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