Brooklyn Rugby men & women Kick off 2015 with shutout victories
The Brooklyn Rugby men and women kicked off the 2015 season on Saturday and both teams came away with shutout victories. The men defeated Old Maroon (NYC) 43-0, while the women beat Morris (NJ) 6-0. The victories came on the same day that Brooklyn Rugby would honor one of its founding members, Josh Magnas, who was recently severely injured in a car accident.
In the men’s game, scoring was hard to come by early on for Brooklyn. The teams traded possession of the ball and little momentum was gained by either team until Craig Mackenzie broke the Old Maroon defensive line about midway through the first half for Brooklyn’s first try of the 2015 season, putting Brooklyn up 5-0 after Kamil Ryczko was unsuccessful on the conversion attempt. Several minutes later, Mike Reilly took a ball from his outside center position and broke through the defensive line again, putting Brooklyn up 12-0, following a successful conversion from Ryczko. That’s where the score would remain going into the half.
In the second half, after a couple key injuries that took two starters out of the game, Brooklyn got into a rhythm on offense, adding five more tries. Mike Reilly added two more tries to finish with a hat trick on the day, while Craig Mackenzie added a second to his total and Mark O’Donnell and Simon Fong were both able to touch down for Brooklyn. Ryczko added one more conversion to finish 2-3 on the day before exiting the game with an injury, while Alan Wolfe added two more conversions for Brooklyn following Ryczko’s departure in the second half, finishing 2-4.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.