The hierarchy in the ECRC is setting itself after three weeks, with four teams in the hunt for the top spot, and three who have struggled.

 

This week, one of those top four, Boston College, had the week off, leaving the rest to battle it out. 

 

American International was averaging almost 60 points in the first two games, and did 50% better with a 92-7 thrashing of UConn. Adrian Ray, a sophomore center our of DC, scored three tries, while Jihad Khabir, freshman flyhalf out of DC, and Kurtis Werner, senior scrumhalf out of Colorado, scored two each. 

 

This was done despite a narrow field and despite Head Coach Josh Macy testing some newer players.

 

"Despite a narrow field we sliced through the defense at will," said head coach Josh Macy. "We rotated players around in the backs and found some more combinations that work for us. [The ] forwards did an awesome job holding defenders and making big runs when their number was called. Four players played their first A-side rugby. It's really nice to see young guys learning and contributing.”

 

The result must be sobering news to the rest of the ECRC, as AIC is an offensive powerhouse, with pace, and apparently depth, to spare.

 

Still, UMass is another team to watch. After their opening week loss to BC, UMass has beaten Middlebury and now Albany to move to 2-1. This week they got early tries from Chris Chambers and Riley Carroll to go up 14-0, and with Brendan Kelly kicking well and Joe Hastry scoring early in the second half, they held off a late Albany charge to win 35-22.

 

On Sunday, Middlebury rebounded from that shock loss to beat Northeastern 38-5 and improve to 2-1.

 

The Vermont college got an early try from No. 8 Lair Silsby, and then two superb tries from wing Adam Markun, the first a long tightrope down the sideline.

 

Markun then set up Silsby for the captain’s second, and Taran Veerman capped off a beautiful team try that involved the entire backline and not a few forwards. Dylan Gorman capped off the tries, and Jackson Bock added four conversions.

 

All of this means that it’s AIC’s world and the rest just live in it, until proven otherwise. AIC visits UMass next week, Middelbury has the week off, and BC makes the trip along I-90 to Albany. But the big game of the season may well be October 11 when AIC visits Boston College in what could be a clash of undefeated teams.

Latest ECRC Standings:

East Coast Rugby Conference (DIAA, ACRC)
	W	L	T	Pf	Pa	Pd	BT	BL	Pts
AIC	3	0	0	207	17	190	3	0	15
Boston College	2	0	0	70	14	56	2	0	10
UMass	2	1	0	76	58	18	2	0	10
Middlebury	2	1	0	68	57	11	2	0	10
Albany	0	3	0	41	129	-88	1	0	1
UConn	0	2	0	18	131	-113	0	0	0
Northeastern	0	2	0	10	84	-74	0	0	0