SMRC Takes 2 from Pasadena
With only 22 men traveling to Pasadena and several having to show up late due to commitments, the boys played tough and smart and took both games from Pasadena.
Game 1 vs Pasadena kicked off with only 15 SMRC players available, including 4 newbies. Almost immediately the boys felt the pressure from Pasadena’s physical squad and got hit with a penalty near their tryline. Pasadena hit the short kick to go up 3-0.
After Pasadena fielded their own kickoff, SMRC poached the ball after some great defensive stops and started making their way down the field. After 10 phases, David Mackenzie picked the ball up behind the ruck and made a sneaky step and streaked 15 yards for the try, Martial Chaput converted. SMRC 7-3.
Play was tough and physical and neither team was making much ground until a pass out wide to Badra Wilson gave the ICEF prodigy a 40 yard run weaving in and out of traffic, Badra offloaded to Mark Coffee who put it down on the line, 12-3 Santa Monica.
The play went back and forth for the next 20 min until Pasadena touched down after a lumbering try by their big forward. Good conversion made it 12-10 SMRC.
Halftime came and luckily some support arrived. 100 year old Loa Milford subbed in at center and immediately made his presence felt, hitting pay dirt in the corner after a nifty offload from Nate Hall. Conversional wide, 17-10 SMRC.
Pasadena started taking us seriously and mounted a physical counter attack, poaching the ball and striking phase after phase. Pasadena had possession almost the rest of the match after a goal line stand SMRC yielded a converted try. 17-17 tie with 4 min left.
Santa Monica took the kick off and played gritty offense and used smart forward phase play to get the Green down to 2 yards in front of the tryline. The forwards smashed and smashed but couldn’t break through. Then scrumhalf Danny Carpio esq reversed the ball and the boys swung it wide to Barda Wilson, who just had too much room for Pasadena to catch him. Badra dotted it down in the corner at full time to give the Green Machine the D1 win 22-17.
For the 2nd game, the guys got a sip of water, switched jerseys and went right back on to the pitch to take the field against Pasadena’s B side. Unbelievably gutsy performance to pull out the win vs a fresh Pasadena 23.
Highlights include a 20yrd try from newcomer Mark Coffee, try my flyhallf Dillon McDonald and try by John Corr at full-time for the win.