Ruggers Rough Up Kutztown, 9-4

The scene yesterday at Soldiers Field was reminiscent of the old playground days--with a twist. The smaller kids beat up the bully.

Led by the play of its forward pack, the Harvard rugby club pushed the much bigger Kutztown Golden Bears around and defeated the visitors, 9-4, in front of a crowd of 125 spectators.

"Our pack played awesome," said loose-head prop Jon Diorio. "They are a really big team, and they were thinking they would really kill us, but we pushed them all over the field."

Harvard took advantage of its superior techniques to outplay Kutztown, especially in the game's final five minutes.

Although neither team scored in the first half, the Crimson attack was dominant. Harvard successfully nullified the size factor by keeping Kutztown pinned deep in its own territory.

Scott Tierney blocked a kick to ignite one of the most impressive runs. Sam Rosenstein relayed the ball to scrum-half Ray LaRaja, playing out of position in place of the injured Michael Gibbs. LaRaja then broke into the clear and passed the ball to Chris Stafonani, who tried to pass it to a teammate only to see it fumbled out of bounds after an exciting 50-yard gain.

"We really kept it in their field the entire first half," Mark Sagarin said. "We should have scored but we still played great."

The second half saw both teams come alive. Harvard got on the scoreboard first on a penalty kick into the wind by fullback Nathan Koenig, who would later kick two more against the wind.

Kutztown retaliated with a try five minutes later on a breakaway. The conversion was missed and Harvard trailed, 4-3.

After that juncture, it was all Harvard. The Crimson scored six unanswered points on two Koenig kicks, the first one coming less than 40 seconds after Kutztown's score.

"We played well and we came from behind to win," Co-Captain Lanny Thorndike said. "It looks like if we have got it together for the Ivies."

The Ivy Championships will be held next weekend in Providence, R.I. Defending champion Brown has defeated Harvard the past two years to capture the championship. The Bruins edged Harvard, 23-17 last weekend in the New England Invitational Championships.