Coming off of two blowout victories over not-quite-ready-for-primetime opponents, the Gators faced a much stronger opponent in the OC Bucks for our third match of the season. The Gators and Bucks have developed a fierce cross-county rivalry in recent years, with contests between the clubs marred by fights and overly vocal players.  I’d like to provide a bit of historical context to this match.  2 years ago, we met in a match officiated by one of their own and lost a close one that many Gators blamed on the whistle holder.  The following year, we met again and this time we provided the ref and won 16-15, but again the losing side claimed the refereeing was biased.  Finally, we met in the playoff semis on our home turf with both sides excited to have a 3^rd party as the referee. In a hard hitting match, the Gators advanced to the playoff finals with a decisive 26-15 win, but were dealt 4 yellow cards, while the Bucks got one yellow and one red.  The game was such an aggressive one that the Gators lost half a dozen players to injury and were completely depleted for the final match against Pasadena.

            Coming into the head-to-head in the 2008 season, both teams were undefeated and both wanted to win the metaphorical OC Cup.  Early on, it became clear that the heavy Buck pack was going to give the Gators trouble, as Big Brian Lawhorne missed the game to get stitches in his hand after locking himself out of his house in the morning and attempting to push a window pane for entry (We haven’t awarded the jerkoff jacket this year, but surely Brian earned it this week).  The Buck pack drove hard, forcing Greg Ballinger to pick the ball up as #8 to avoid losing possession due to wheeled scrums.  Line-outs also proved a problem as both teams struggled with proper compensation for the wind and the referee struggled with allowing any throw other than one perfectly down the middle.  Despite our trouble in set-pieces, the Gators came out of the gates hard and Cliff Breen found the try zone 7 minutes into the match, driving in all alone from 8 meters out as the final push after a series of rucks. The first half played out with a lot of whistles resulting in countless scrummages and line-outs, but the fit Gators rose to the challenge and continued to run hard in open play.  A couple of penalties deep in Buck territory enabled Cliff to put two balls between the posts for 6 more points to enter the half with an 11-0 lead. Cliff ultimately took home forward of the match honors.

            In the second half, the Gator backs got a little more work, with flyhalf David Carter kicking into space to gain field position followed by strong running and stiff defense in the centers from Sam Ballinger that earned him back of the match honors.  Play was stopped for a bit after an opposing player fell on Steve “Boston” Arold’s extended leg, breaking the top of his tibia.  Boston was helped to the sideline and was even willing to head to the bar, but his girlfriend curtailed the plan and brought him to the hospital instead.  The Gators continued to control the match in the second half and Andrew Reynolds came off the bench to score late in the half in a similar manner to the Gator’s first try (Cliff Breen converted).  Resting on an 18-0 lead with only a few minutes to play, the Bucks exploited an overlap and managed to find the try zone as full time neared and the Gators took home an 18-5 victory. 

 

Scoring

Cliff Breen 1 try, 1 conversion, 2 penalties

Andrew Reynolds 1 try

 

For week 2 of the season, the Gators were slated to take on the San Diego Armada at home.  Unfortunately, our home pitch was not available, but the Armada saved the day by offering use of their facilities, they even handled field setup!  With most of the Gators stuck in crushing SoCal traffic, the Armada continued their show of hospitality by pushing the kickoff back a bit to accommodate us. 

            Some say that no good deed goes unrewarded, but the Armada may have been better off sticking to the schedule.  Soon after kickoff, it was clear that the Gators’ experience was going to be more than the rookie-laden Armada could handle.  The Gators quickly found themselves deep in enemy territory and scrumhalf Kevin Beck picked a ball off a ruck and went to the undefended weak side scoring his first of two tries on the day.  The initial Gator assault continued with strong between-the-posts play from both props, Tom DeSantis took home forward of the match honors while Brian Lawhorne netted two tries on the day, though a few were suspicious that his only motivation for the second try was that his wife missed the first.  Rounding out the front row at hooker was Zach Heckwolf, who won all our scrums and most of theirs.

            The Gators started and ended the game strong, but seemed to lose focus in the middle.  Tackles were missed, players failed to look for their support (which may have been a good thing, since there wasn’t a lot of it around), and passes were dropped.  Nonetheless, we found a few moments of glory.  Dave Jackson continued his strong play in the centers for 3 tries, scoring at least one of those by running in support of rookie wing Nathan Adam, who took home back of the match honors. Greg Ballinger also continued his relentless pursuit of the try zone, putting two down of his own.  Rounding out the try scoring were 2^nd row AJ Krolikowski and rookie center Joe Canett, with one try unassigned.

            The Armada played hard and never quit despite the lopsided score.  They were able to break a few tackles and scored 1 try and 1 penalty of their own, yielding a final score of 77-8.  Afterwards, we headed downtown, where the Gators put up a strong 3^rd half performance by taking home a photo-finish boat race victory before leading the bar in song. 

           

Final Score

SOC Gators 77  -  SD Armada 8

 

Scoring

Dave Jackson 3 tries

Greg Ballinger 2 tries

Kevin Beck 2 tries

Brian Lawhorne 2 tries

Joe Canett 1 try

Adam Krolikowski 1 try

Unassigned 1 try

 

Bjorn Ryden 7 conversions, 1 penalty

January 12, 2008 – Irvine, CA.

 

After months of waiting, rugby season has once again arrived.  For the first match of the season, the Gators hosted blue division newcomer Fullerton Mutineers on our home pitch.   In what this author hopes will prove to be a trend, the Gators arrived at the pitch early and had the field setup complete well before the arrival of the opposition. When the Mutineers finally started to arrive a few minutes before kickoff, it became clear that they were going to have difficulty fielding a full side.  Eventually, they took the field with 13 players, leading to gaps in the defense that the Gators exploited at will.  Rookie wing Nate Adam found the try zone first 3 minutes into the game, earning the privilege of shooting a boot after the match.  Center Dave Jackson found the try zone next, returning two more times before the final whistle, taking home back of the match honors.    Once the floodgates were open, there was no slowing the Gator attack, with almost the entire game played on the opposition’s side of the field. The Gator backs were responsible for most of the first half scoring, but often failed to use their support.  A few late arrivals put Fullerton at full strength in the second half, but that didn’t slow the Gators down.  With fewer overloads in the backline, the Gators turned to their forwards to do the scoring. A powerful, organized Gator pack led by Cliff Breen dominated in set pieces and walked down the field in well-controlled mauls for a number of tries. Greg Ballinger proved effective at both #8 and fly-half, taking home man of the match honors and a hat trick.  To their credit, Fullerton kept their heads up and finished the game with the same intensity they began with, almost finding the try zone in the final moments of the game. Fifteen gator tries led to a final score of 81-0.

 

Scoring:

Nate Adam 1 try

Dave Carter 1 conversion

Dave Jackson 3 tries

Kevin Beck 1 try

Bjorn Ryden 2 tries 2 conversions

Greg Ballinger 3 tries

Cliff Breen 1 try, 2 conversions

Steve “Winnie” Weinberg 2 tries

Adam “AJ” Krolikowski 1 try

Zach Heckwolf 1 try

 

Last week the Gators pulled together as a team and pulled out one of the biggest wins in recent memory with a playoff victory over the OC Bucks.  We gave the Bucks everything we had and left the pitch with nothing left in our tanks.  Unfortunately, that was only the semi-final match and we had one more week of rugby left.  We were down 4 starters and had 2 others playing hurt, but nobody was ready to roll over and give Pasadena an uncontested title.

Well, that’s what we thought before the match began.  From the opening whistle, Pasadena came at the Gators hard, making a strong case for their club as blue division champs.  The Gators did some things right on Saturday, sticking to a one-man, one-tackle philosophy that allowed us to pile forwards on either side of a ruck, preventing Pasadena from running their multi-phase forward crashes that they’ve successfully used throughout the season.  Unfortunately, Pasadena proved that they are more than a team of hard-running, hard-rucking forwards.  Apparently, their backline can get the job done too.  In particular, Pasadena’s flyhalf exploited the inexperienced Gator wings with a number of brilliantly placed kicks into space, many of which ultimately resulted in tries.

Despite the fact that the Gators were out of the game early, South Orange County continued to put in a strong effort.  Hard-hits were delivered all day by flanker Matt Sederes and outside center Dave Jackson.  Inside center Vince McGlade was able to shimmy his way through an opposing backline for the final time of his sensational rookie season. Special thanks go out to Mike Hartman, who flew down from the Bay Area for the final two playoff games, despite moving after the last week of league play.  Thanks also go out to Chris Caulfield who filled in at wing after the Gators exhausted their bench.

After about 75 minutes of clean, but hard play the referee put us out of our misery a few minutes early with the final tally at 64-10.  Pasadena showed that they have the skill and depth to represent SCRFU at the national level and the Gators wish them the best of luck.

After the game, several tenured Gators announced their intentions to move on, be it to refereeing, taking one last shot at upper-division rugby, or just to stand on the sidelines and guzzle beer.  Your service with the team has been deeply appreciated and you will all be missed.

 

Gator Awards:

Man of the Match: Matt Sederes  (for being a bad dude, week after week)

Forward of the Match: Mike Hartman (for strength in scrums and commitment to the team)

Back of the Match: Kevin Beck (not really deserved on the day, but he played hurt twice in the playoffs.  Of note: Kevin completed the Gator cycle, winning all four post-match awards in a season)

Jerkoff Jacket: Ulrich Diederick/Tom Cobb (Ulrich was given the jacket as a on-going joke, but after Cobb failed to chug beer in a manner fitting to a rugger, the jacket was quickly transferred)

 

Scoring:

Vince McGlade – 1 penalty, 1 try, 1 conversion: 10 points

The OC Bucks and the South OC Gators are building a cross-county rivalry that is looking to last for the ages.  In their last meeting, the Gators came out on top 16-15.  Heading into the blue division semi-finals on the Gators home turf, the Bucks were eager to avenge their loss, while the Gators looked to prove that they are, in fact, the better team.

 

The reputation of the teams’ good will towards each other preceded itself, with the referee warning both clubs that he wasn’t going to tolerate ungentlemanly behavior.  Turns out, he wasn’t bluffing, but we’ll get there.

 

Kickoff was scheduled for 1PM, but the Gators were glad to learn they aren’t the only team that doesn’t keep a close eye on the team jerseys.  The Bucks left their team kit in Cerritos and asked for a delay in order to retrieve them.  The jerseys arrived just after 1PM and both teams took the field.  This delay gave the Bucks some time to carefully scrutinize the eligibility of the Gator roster and ultimately it was determined that all the paperwork was in order.

 

Both teams came out of the gate hard, making it clear that there was no love lost between the sides.  The Gator pack used their size advantage to maintain ball control at the breakdowns, while keeping the ball on the Bucks end of the field.  About 7 minutes into the match, the Gators were awarded a penalty between the posts about 20m out, which outside center Vince McGlade easily converted to give the Gators an early lead, which they would never relinquish.  After the restart, the Bucks continued to run hard at the Gators, who were able to stop most of the attack, though a few big gains were made.  Eventually, SOC found the sweet spot between the posts again, though this time flyhalf Brian Maloney did the honors with a rare blue division drop goal to push the lead to 6-0.

 

Play continued and the Bucks made it close to the promised land a few times, though the Gators played strong defense around the try line and were able to ward off the attack for a while before finally yielding the first try of the day to the Bucks, which went unconverted.  The Gators maintained a slim 6-5 lead that they would take into the intermission, but not before giving the referee a few opportunities to try out his yellow card.  With one Gator already in the sin bin, a Buck made what the Gators thought was a late spear tackle to the face of one of their own.  Unsatisfied at the lack of a whistle on the play, another Gator stepped in to have a discussion with the Buck that made the hit and a brawl erupted.  Both the Gator and Buck involved in inciting the fight were given a 10-minute rest by the official which ended up spanning halftime.

 

A few minutes into the second half, both teams were back to full strength.  Coach Tom Cobb came off the bench and immediately impacted the game by running in support and touching his first one down on the day (conversion missed by McGlade) to extend the lead to 11-5.  The Gators were not content to rest and continued the attack.  Their persistence paid off, causing the Bucks to commit a penalty which McGlade converted to make it a two-score game, 14-5.  The Bucks battled back and scored their second try of the day, decreasing the Gator lead to a perilous 14-10.  Trying to extend the lead, the Gators placed a grub kick through the Buck backline and into the try zone, where Cobb was able to fall on his second try of the day (conversion missed by McGlade).  With the lead at 19-10, the Gators relaxed a bit too much and the Bucks touched one down in the try zone for the last time, but missed the conversion to bring the game within 4 points for the second time.  Somewhere in all this mess, two more Gators received yellow cards and one Buck got a red card.  The Bucks brought the Gators everything they had and nearly found their way into the try zone and touched the ball down, only to find that their player was signaled to be in touch about 3 meters outside of the try zone.  This was called by the Buck-supplied touch judge, who deserves to be commended.  Two out of the last three Buck/Gator games have had refereeing that was not perceived to be fair by one side or the other.  The Buck touch judge showed a lot of dignity and supported the ideals of rugby as a gentleman’s sport by calling what he saw on the field.  Cheers to you, mate!

 

In the final moments of the game, the ball ended up in Vince McGlade’s hands.  With the entire team shouting for him to get the ball into touch, McGlade took another option, breaking a few tackles, darting down the sideline, before centering it between the posts and sealing the deal with the conversion.  Final score: 26-15.

 

Man of the Match: Tom Cobb

Forward of the Match: Brian Lawhorne

Back of the Match: Brian Maloney

Jerkoff Jacket: Kevin Beck (for his role in starting the brawl)

 

Scoring:

 

Tom Cobb: 2 tries

Vince McGlade: 1 try, 1 conversion, 2 penalties

Brian Maloney: 1 dropgoal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, March 31 the San Pedro Red Rhinos and the SOC Gators assembled to play their final regular season matches.  Well, actually, only the Rhinos assembled, as the van carrying 15 or so Gators chose to ignore the driving directions given to them.  About 5 minutes after the scheduled kickoff, the Gators arrived and hurriedly put their kits on and took the pitch.

 

As it turned out, the Gators play quite well without stretching and energy sapping pre-game drills.  On the opening kickoff, a Rhino was unable to handle the kick, resulting in a Gator scrum in Rhino territory.  A very strong Gator pack was able to drive their opposition at will, marching the ball towards the try line before it was distributed to the backs and scoring-phenom Vince McGlade was able to muscle his way into the try zone and convert the kick 3 minutes into the game, pushing his season scoring to over 100 points..

 

The remainder of the half played out in the same manner.  The Gator forwards dominated both set pieces and loose play, easily driving an aggressive, but small Rhino squad.  In the first half, the Gator pack was a relentless work horse, bringing the Gators close to the try line before the ball was distributed to the backs who got to do the honors of touching the ball down.  Several gators would score in this manner before the intermission.  A hard crash by flyhalf Brian Maloney was able to find the promised land, as was some nice running in support by McGlade, Dave Jackson, and Ulrich Diederick.  The Gators secured a bonus point and entered the half ahead 31-0.

 

Most weeks Gator rugby can be summed up as a game of two halves.  Not this one.  The Gators continued their domination, though a few hard hits from the Rhinos attempted to slow the momentum.  With the Gators knocking on the door yet again, the ball was given to the backline, where it ultimately found a second row Steve Arold running in support, who punched his way through for 5.  In one of the nicest individual efforts on the day, Ben Long returned from a knee-repair and 4 year rugby hiatus to break through a maul on his own and run 40 yards down field, ignoring his support but making it to within 5 meters before a Gator knock-on put the ball in the hands of the Rhinos.  On the resulting scrum, flanker Zach Heckwolf saw the opposing scrumhalf playing with the ball at the back of the scrum, broke off and laid a hit on him, forcing a bad pass into the try zone that the Gators dove on for another 5 points.

 

After the resulting kickoff, the Gators again found themselves deep in Rhino country before turning the ball over.  The Rhinos took possession and passed the ball out to the wing who was tackled hard in what some thought was an unsafe manner, though no penalty was called.  The game had been under control by referee Jay Trello for the first 60 minutes, but the Rhinos continued to argue the call before the tackled player was given a red card.  The Rhinos immediately reacted by walking off the pitch and the final whistle was blown, with the abbreviated game ending in a Gator shutout of the Rhinos, 41-0.

 

The remainder of the day was a lot of fun, most Gators hung around to watch the other blue division games and consume fermented beverages.  Notably, Pasadena defeated the OC Bucks, pushing SOC into 2^nd place heading into the playoffs.

 

Man of the Match: Brian Maloney

Forward of the Match: Ben Long

Back of the Match: Ulrich Diederick

Jerkoff Jacket: Vince McGlade (because most of us like to play 80 minutes of rugby)

 

Scoring:

Vince McGlade – 3 tries, 3 conversions

Brian Maloney – 1 try

Dave Jackson – 1 try

Ulrich Diederick – 1 try

Steve Arold – 1 try

 

Final try of the day – unassigned

Saturday was another great day for adult sports in Orange County.  Some restrictions were placed on how and when we could line the field by AYSO.  This led to a very limited warmup for the Gators, while Eagle Rock went through their full pre-game preparations.  Despite this, the Gators came out of the gate hard from the opening whistle.  The Gator pack did an excellent job getting around the field in support, but their real dominance was in set pieces.  The Gators seemed to be wheeling Eagle Rock’s scrums at will, despite their efforts to fight the wheel by crabbing.  Gator line-outs have been strong all season and today was no exception with SOC driving Eagle Rock back after bringing the ball down and stealing a few of their throws.

The excellent play by the forwards allowed the backs a chance to strut their stuff.  Flyhalf Dave Carter led off the scoring with a try from short range 16 minutes into the game.  Four minutes later, Eagle Rock beat us on an overload with a very fast fullback and got their first try and conversion of the day.  In his debut at wing, Marcus showed what an asset his speed is by running in the next two tries at 26 and 37 minutes.  One of these tries was setup by a long run up and across the field by Dave Carter.  The backs also showed they can do more than run fast, with Chris May delivering a savage hit on the Eagle Rock wing.  Frenchy closed at the half with a try from the other wing at 39 minutes.

A frustrated Eagle Rock team played very physically in the second half and tempers began to flair both among themselves and between the teams.  SOC kept their heads and didn’t allow Eagle Rock to take us out of our game.  The forwards continued to dominate, while Marcus clinched man of the match honors by polishing off a hat trick early in the half.  Eagle Rock broke away on another overload with their fullback running in another try.  When the final whistle blew the Gators were on top 25-12.

Flanker Zach Heckwolf earned the battle helmet for forward of the match.  He rucked very well and put in a lot of effort in pulling opposing players out of rucks.  Inside center Brian Maloney apparently didn’t use all of his energy on his honeymoon and was rewarded with the back of the match sombrero.  Brian excelled in crashing hard into the defense, but also had some nice finesse passes to keep the ball moving down the back line.  Next game is a rematch against OMBAC III.