The UR Uglies 50-7 win over Hobart College on Sunday was nothing but pure domination.
After defeating Bonaventure – last year’s state champions – the Uglies have done nothing but stepped it up.
The game was highlighted with numerous tries and big plays – especially during the explosive second half.
Senior and captain of the Uglies Matt Venzin once again led the charge, scoring an unheard of 30 points with one try and a penalty kick in the first half, two tries in the second half and six points after try conversions – only missing one during the game.
Also getting in the try zone was senior and flanker Barry Gomoll, with a try in each half.
“Venzin is always our top scorer – he has a great feel for the game,” Gomoll said. Gomoll continued, “My two tries were just good opportunities where no one was between me and the try zone.”
The Uglies stumbled into the game having a rough start with a myriad of penalties. Although they were fired up, their six penalties in the first 20 minutes of the game worked to quickly curb their enthusiasm. At halftime the team had the lead, 17-7, but not by a satisfactory margin. Luckily, they knew exactly what they needed to do.
“We just stopped holding ourselves back with stupid penalties,” sophomore Steve Goff said. “Our strong play just simply wore them down in the second half. They couldn’t handle our pack.”
After ailing their penalty woes, the Uglies fired on all cylinders in the second half. Rounding off their scoring were Goff and freshman Raidev Akoi, both scoring unanswered tries.
Although junior and eight-man Shane Campbell-Staton’s efforts throughout the game were not reflected directly on the score board, his punishing offensive runs had an effect on the game equal to that of the leading scorers.
“Shane came up huge today – no one wanted to tackle him, and I can’t blame them. Every stoppage of play they were talking about him non-stop,” junior and locke William Conwell said. “They just flat out couldn’t handle him.”
Next week, the Uglies take on one of their division rivals SUNY , 11 a.m. on Saturday at Geneseo, known for their tough play, will be sure not to disappoint any spectators.
“They’re a real physical team – they run hard and will probably bang it up the middle of the rucks a lot,” sophomore and flanker Colin O’Banion said. “We have to be ready to stop them right there – it’s going to be a forwards game.”
Last year the Uglies suffered a tough loss to Geneseo, but are expecting a different outcome this season.
“We’re not worried about it – we are a stronger team than last year even though we lost a lot of great seniors,” sophomore and scrumhalf Nathan Ross said. “We’ve been working on our rolling maul a lot more – I think that will really help us against [Geneseo].”
Edwards can be reached at cedwards@campustimes.org.
