2009 Rockaway 7s Tourney
W Old Maroon 12 Betty Ford 10
W Old Maroon 12 Binghamton 5
W Old Maroon 15 Columbia Grad 0
June 20th 2009
--Fort Tilden, Rockaway,
Queens
It did not look promising for Old Maroon RFC as three young boys in blue (NYPD) sat pacing at 8AM on the orange field minutes
away form their first 7s tourney and no Old Maroon sensai's in site. Jonny Newman rolled up into the lot to make
4, Pat Carroll (super blast form the past ALUM) was hovering near by made 5, and we yanked 2 other scrubs from the opposing
team to begin the match. Minutes into the game, Mike Farina and Gary Baldi subbed in and promptly took control of a
sloppy ball game. A long run by Gary out of his own 22 to score put the boys up 5, leaving Jonny Newman to make a drop
kick from the right corner. With astro turf sneakers on, he sent the wobbly ball up to kiss the near post and land between
the sticks for the full 7. This would prove the difference as Gary shanked his other extra point later in the game.
Betty Ford made it interesting by scoring on the last play of the game but could not convert from 10 meters dead center, they
Garryied the ball away to lose the opening match. To Gary - (verb). to shank an easy dropkick for extra points.
To Jared - (verb). to shank an easy penalty kick to win championship. To Jonny Newman - (verb). to live and perform
in utter excellence at all levels, on and off the pitch.
Next game against
Binghamton was well in hand as the 3 NYPD players started to get the hang of bringing the 7s game down to their level of pulverising
and rolling mauls of 15s play. Future went in to score on the left side to open the points on the board, while Mike
Farina also contributed with a run in the second half to put away the game. Binghamton's only score came off a bungled
line out that went back to their scrum who galloped away from Paul Kuzluski to get on the board.
The last game of Pool play had us face off against Columbia Graduate School, they had a bunch
of foreigners who looked like they might be trouble, but once we put our heads down and ran through them instead of around
them they folded folded like the French of WWII. By this time Jeff Miragliotta was mending his injuries and trucking
over 120 pound men and Pat Carroll stayed on the outside containing what would be scores. Special thanks to our high
school player of the month Blake Odem who came out and got in some good experience, I personally saw him knee an old man in
the back of the head, which he felt bad about.
3-0 and
ready to roll on into the semi finals and hopefully swipe some hardware, we waited for the brackets to be posted. And
we waited, and we fired up the BBQ, and we helped ourselves to some brewskis, and waited. And sat in the rain,
and waited, while the brain squad refused to post anything. We took our pride and remained undefeated in the tourney
as the rain pelted down and guys started eating more hot sausage and burgers and drank more beers. Enough was enough,
it was over three hours of sitting in the rain, we packed it up and left unbeaten from Rockaway 7s matches. All had
a great time, ate well, drank some, but most of all played surprisingly well and were ready to make a run at the championship.
Not on this day, soon enough!
Douglas C. Neidermeyer
