This past Sunday, the Hamilton College men’s rugby team earned a dominant victory over SUNY Potsdam in a 40–0 win. It was the perfect outcome on a sunny Fallcoming and Family weekend, especially because it was one of the Exiles’ two home games all season.
The Exiles were coming off of a strong performance a week prior, which featured a 26–8 win against SUNY Plattsburgh. Against Plattsburgh, it was only a four-point game at the half until the offense exploded to score 14 more points and the rock-solid defense held their opponents to a scoreless second half.
The team carried this momentum into Sunday’s game. While the official score was 40–0, a mercy rule was enacted after 22 minutes, and the unofficial score was an astounding 99–0.
The Potsdam Bears only had 13 players. 15 are needed to field a team, so some Hamilton players played alongside their opponents. The early mercy rule allowed for more members to see playing time.
“This match was great, not only for morale, but also because it allowed a lot of our rookies to get some good minutes and be in a real game,” said Duncan Freeman ’22.
The six tries (during official playing time) came from a multitude of players: two by Will Richardson ’21, and one each by Ryan Wall ’20, Nat Spicer ’21, Hunter Olstein ’21, and Owen Anastas ’22. Richardson, who joined the team last season and is a member of the Hamilton track and field team, has been an asset to the team with his incredible speed.
Nine additional unofficial tries were spread out among the team as well. Henry Golden ’20 and Luke Warshaw ’20 each added one for the Exiles. The other seven tries came from underclassmen: three from Zach Jones ’22 and one each from Ethan Loring ’22, Zach Weller ’23, Caden Lemov ’23, and Ben Jakubzac ’23. Jones is the goal kicker for the team but was able to see more time as a scrum half in this game.
“Zach played most of the game facilitating the offense and was rewarded,” Freeman said.
The team voted Hunter Olstein ’21 as their “Man of the Match” for “scor[ing] a try and [being] an overall standup player, always being in support when he needed to. He also proved his value as he played well at more than one position, starting off at winger and moving to flanker.”
The team is led by captains Emmett Orgass ’21 and Golden, whose expansive knowledge of the game and leadership skills have been pivotal to their success this season. In their last two games, the Exiles will lean on their first-years Weller, Jakubzac, and Lemov, who have already proved to be threats in the first three games.
Last year, Hamilton mercy-ruled Plattsburgh in 35 minutes. This year it took them only 22. Freeman noted that this spoke to the fact that “the team was incredibly prepared and has a deep roster.”
Watch men’s rugby as they look to continue their success at their last home game of the season on Oct. 19, at 1 PM on Minor Field against Paul Smith’s College.
