Erie "A" Side @ Mon River "A" Side

The Erie boy's mounted up at Topp's early Saturday morning to head south in our quest to take on the Mon River Mud Lobsters, in Morgantown WV...our last match of the season. As we finished our tour of the campus (looking for the pitch), we stumbled on a rather large pond with what appeared to be some young mud lobsters lurking around. Traveling with only 18 including our coach...Erie was looking to win this one without the services of many A-Siders. Not only was this a must win...Erie needed 4 tries to ensure 3rd place in our division. Unfortunately, only the top two teams move on to the playoffs...

Since kickoff was pushed off until 2pm, Erie used the extra time to romp around in the mud until getting under way around 2:30pm. Of course, with most of our guys staying in town for the evening...we didn't mind the late start.

Finally, once we were under way...we were quick to realize that this was not the team that we expected to play. Shortly after the kickoff, we found ourselves backpedaling inside our own 22...and watching them punch in the first points of the game, leaving it 5-0 them. After tying things at 5, Erie Wing Kevin Bugaj left the match with a broken forearm...and was followed by fullback Darragh Agnew with a separated shoulder 5 minutes later. Unfortunately, we only brought a single backline sub (coach)...and he was in after watching only 10 minutes of play. Soon after taking the pitch, Erie watched the Mud Lobsters mount another attack that found the tryline directly under the posts...thanks to some awesome tackling by coach...leaving us down again, 10-5. Soon after, Erie was able to bring it down the field and touch one down around the outside to even things at 10. We eventually went into halftime up about 25-10 with one man in the sin-bin. The second half went much better than the first...except for a red-card on co-captain Matt Verga. Fortunately for us, everyone stepped up in his absence and scored 2 more tries while Matty sat in the sin-bin.

All in all, we pulled it together...won the match, and got our last bonus point of the season. We then went on to win the party, and the town. As we always do, Erie was sure to make our presense known througout the entire town of Morgantown. Unless South Pitt destroyed the Rovers this weekend...we should end the season in 3rd place overall. Not bad a bad year.

Erie "A" Side Lineup: 1. Phil Gallagher, 2. Zach Kracjowski, 3. Austin White (c), 4. Andy Chapman, 5. Josh Jaeger, 6. Pat Barrett, 7. Sergio Rodriguez, 8. Bob Nelson, 9. Gabe Prischak, 10. Nate Moore, 11. Casey Jones, 12. Matt Verga (cc), 13. Kevin Jackson, 14. Kevin Bugaj, 15. Darragh Agnew, 16. Greg Farrell (in @ 40), 17. Beef Curtains (in @ 5), 18. Jeremy Jaeger (in @ 10).