Blacksurg upsets News

Shocked faces and silence were all that remained when the final whistle blew. Newport News, the up-and-coming VRU contenders had been upset by a scrappy Blacksburg side.

Newport News (2-1-0) came into the match with Blacksburg (1-1-0) expecting to cruise to an easy victory. Newport News has taken it to Blacksburg in the past and did not expect blue and black to be much of a challenge. Newport News’ over-confidence set the tone for what would be a disjointed, sloppy affair.

From the very onset of the match, Newport News suffered from miscommunication between the backs and forwards, leading to many knock-ons and unnecessary turnovers. Blacksburg narrowly missed turning a misguided Newport News penalty into three points in the 7th minute of the contest. Even with the missed penalty kick, Blacksburg maintained their cool. This allowed the over-matched Blacksburg squad to build momentum that would ultimately carry the side to an early 5-0 (7th minute) lead on a lengthy try that caught the Newport News defense off-guard.

Newport News responded with some hard-nosed play in the scums to attempt to regain control of the match. While the Newport News completely dominated the scums (wheeling Blacksburg at almost every scrum), News failed to make an impact at rucks. Too many times Newport News runners were un-accompanied downfield, allowing Blacksburg to regain possession.
Had it not been for great individual efforts from key players, News might not have scored in the first half. In the one shining instance for News in the first half, center Sean Reisner was able to exploit a crease in the defense for a long try midway through the first half, tying the match at 5-5.

News pushed hard for another score in the final minutes of the first half, with a rolling maul that pushed Blacksburg right to their try line. Unfortunately, the many extra lines on the field confused the sir who thought the maul had just passed out the back of the try zone, and he blew the whistle. With only seconds left, News was unable to fight back past the try line before time was called.

At halftime, News had to reassess their play, facing a 5-5 tie through 40 minutes. Blacksburg, on the other hand, could not have been more confident. They had held the high-scoring News side to five points and were 40 minutes away from pulling off a big upset.

The second half started off well for News, with the side able to take a quick 8-5 lead within the first minute of play.

Newport News went to their bench early in the second half to try to raise the energy level of the team, but to no avail. Regardless of the energy infusion, the team continued to struggle to get to the breakdown, allowing Blacksburg to hold a distinct advantage in time-of-possession.

Blacksburg would take the lead in the 62nd minute off of an unconventional try (to say the least). Although the Blacksburg player appeared to have intentional touched down the ball at the 5 meter line and thereby knocking on the ball, Blacksburg played through the whistle to punch in the try seconds later, taking a 10-8 edge. This was on the same line that the sir had mistaken for the back of the try zone (rather than the front) at the end of the first half.

Newport News once again rallied behind a great individual effort, this time by flanker Ryan Brewster, to score another try to regain the lead at 13-10 in the 69th minute of play. This would be the last time that News would hold the advantage the rest of the way.

Newport News continued to struggle, taking unnecessary penalties and allowing Blacksburg to take advantage of relatively uncontested scrums to move down the pitch to retake the lead in the 73rd minute at 17-13.

With little time left, Newport News showed a strong resolve to not give up the match without a fight. News dominated play, moving the ball effectively down the pitch. That is until a Blacksburg back intercepted a pass and ran down the empty pitch towards a crushing try. The News backs emptied their energy reserves to run down the Blacksburg back short of the try zone to regain possession for one last drive.

Ultimately, Newport News could not get the ball in the try zone, ending the game inside the Blacksburg 22 meter line, shy of the winning score.

Even in what amounted to brutally awful team performance by Newport News, there was many valuable lessons to be learned. News learned that when it comes to CGU play, you cannot underestimate any side. Much credit is due to Blacksburg in this contest. Although the black and blue lacks the same caliber of talent as Newport News, they played very well as a squad and were constantly supporting runners and winning at the breakdowns.

Newport News now has the next two weeks to regroup before seeking redemption against James River at Crittenden Middle School.

Scoring: Sean Reisner 8 (try 22’, 0/2 conversions, 1/1 penalty kicks), Ryan Brewster 5 (try 69’)
Man of the Match: Rob Markiewicz

Report by Ken Durbin