In a powerful display of controlled rugby, the Junior Gents defeated the Central Terrors – Palmer High School – from Colorado Springs 39-12 in front of a crowd of over 200 people on Willits Rugby Field, Basalt on Saturday to vault into the Rugby Colorado Division II State Playoffs!
The Terrors opened the scoring with a smartly taken try by their scrum half after 5 minutes to send a strong message to the home team.
The Jr Gents responded with their own score by the powerful Gonzalez to tie things up.
It was a titanic wrestling contest between the packs all day, with scrum dominance vacillating between the two teams. With Robert Hiles uncharacteristically off form with the boot, the home team trailed closing in at half time. However, skipper Jake Gentry scored late to give the Juniors a 10-5 half time lead.
Although the Juniors could have been better served by playing a more expansive game, their combined desire to win and their ability to control the ball simply squeezed the life out of the opposing side. It is a very unusual statistic to report that the front row scored 5 tries between them but it is reflective of how the Junior Gents played the game. Cristian Gonzalez finished with 2 tries, Erik Mesa the loosehead prop scored another fine try, and the ever present leader of the pack, Luke Prosence helped himself to 2 tries.
Robert Hiles managed 2 conversions and had an outstanding open field game. The try of the game went to the diminutive Nick Hanle. Hanle is by far the smallest player on the field every game but always the most tenacious in defense and attack, he hounded the opposition into errors continuously before claiming his score under the posts.
Nick Morgan and Danny Gomez had strong running games in the center and did not allow one break from their opposite numbers.
Matt Wampler again controlled the game very well from the base of the forwards, who were an outstanding unit throughout the game but the day belonged to the front row of Gonzalez, Prosence and Mesa.
Next week the Juniors take on the Castle Rock Pirates away before their final home game at Willits Rugby Field on April 18th against a strong Legend High School Titans team.