August 25, 2002

The SYC Screaming Eagles U-15 Rugby team defeated SYA 63-35 in a Northern Virginia Youth Rugby Challenge Cup matchup, SYC's third victory in three matches between the two clubs since they inaugurated the Cup competition in August 2001. SYC's Justin Moore led all scorers with four tries and one conversion. SYC also defeated SYA in two preliminary games matching the teams' U-15 B-sides and U-11 squads.

Preliminary Matches

In the first preliminary match, SYC's U-15 B-side edged SYA 29-26 in a hard-fought contest. SYC jumped out to a first-quarter 14-0 lead with tries by Chris McIlvaine and Justin Moore (both converted by Moore), but SYA brought it back to 14-12 by the end of the half. SYC added to its lead in the third quarter with unconverted tries by Moore and 10-year-old speedster Matthew Bursley, on loan from the U-11 side. Moore scored again in the fourth quarter while SYA put in two converted tries to make for a final score of 29-26. In addition to Bursley, SYC got solid contributions from several other U-11 players who got a taste of U-15 rugby: Chris Anderson, Michael Bursley, and Tommy McHugh. The rest of SYC's U-15 B-side—all of whom also made solid contributions—included Ben Cleverdon, Jared Hornaday, Anna Ing, Paul Miller, and Adam Zarrolli.

The next preliminary match pitted a mix of SYC's U-11 teams (Red, White, and Blue) against SYA. In six periods of action, SYC scored 10 tries (six converted) to SYA's six tries (one converted) to win 62-32. SYC got tries from Matthew Bursley, Chris Anderson, Jake Flewellyn, and Michael Bursley, among others, and solid contributions from everyone else who played: Joshua Ash, Reece Benedict, John Cossio, Harry Cwik, Jeremy Harrop, Mitchell Killinger, Katy McHugh, Tommy McHugh, Daniel Wright, and Kevin Young.

Challenge Cup

SYC's Challenge Cup team, an A-side mix of players from its regular season Blue and Red teams, started the match by dominating possession in the first quarter, turning good passes and support into three tries (two by Justin Moore, one by Devin Morris, one conversion by Moore) and a 17-7 lead. The second half featured more of the same, with one try each by Loren Martin, Gareth Willatt, and Mike Cleveland (and one conversion by Morris). SYC's defense was again solid, limiting SYA to one more converted try. The halftime score was 34-14.

In the second half, SYC kept up the pressure on attack, scoring two tries (one by Morris, one by Brian Doyle, both converted by Morris). But SYC also lost some of its defensive composure, allowing SYA several long runs and two converted tries. It was clear that despite their 20-point deficit, SYA would not give up without a fight. SYC, however, also refused to back off. Early in the fourth quarter, SYC's Sean Felix made a 40-meter break before getting caught, but teammate Brian Young was there in support to score the try. Midway through the quarter SYC let SYA get another converted try, but roared back to score two more off of SYA handling errors near the SYA goal line (both tries by Moore). When the final whistle blew, SYC had won 63-35 and successfully defended the Challenge Cup bowl trophy.

SYC's Challenge Cup roster: Mike Cleveland, Brian Doyle, Sean Felix, Ian Green, Jesse Lambert, Loren Martin, Justin Moore, Devin Morris, Kaitlin Murphy, Gareth Willatt, Brian Young. A-siders Ginny McMahon and Craig Stephenson could not attend.