This article was originally published on May 29
The Dexter Devils were runners-up in Michigan High School Rugby’s Division I, after a narrow loss to Grandville in the Championship Match on Saturday, May 25, at the West Ottawa High School Stadium, in Holland, MI.
With no time left on the clock, but the ball still live, in Saturday’s Division I State High School Rugby Championship match, the Dexter pack was driving well inside the Grandville 22-metre line; from the maul, desperate Dexter hands tried to send the ball back to the waiting backs, but an equally desperate Grandville boot somehow got to the loose ball and fly-hacked it into touch. The match was over, Grandville had won 26-20, and the stands at the West Ottawa Rugby stadium in Holland, MI, erupted, as the numerous Grandville supporters celebrated their second State Division I Championship. The Dexter players slumped in disappointment on the pitch, but to the Dexter fans, scattered through the stands and along the touchline, outnumbered, but never silent, it did not really feel like defeat. A glorious season had ended with a splendid half of courageous, all-out Rugby.
Dexter had scored the last 20 points in the match, and had been driving for a try that, if converted, would have won the Championship for the underdogs. The raucous celebrations of the Grandville fans, some of whom were reported as anticipating, before kick-off, a 100-point-victory, testified more to relief than joy, while the Dexter followers rushed on to the pitch not only to console, but also to congratulate their bloodied warriors.
The day had begun badly for the Devils. Already without Leo Hinkle, the Jackson HS Senior who has started most of this season’s matches at lock, the team lost two more key starters on match day. DHS senior Keoni Koch, nursing a knee injury for several weeks, failed a fitness test, and in him the team lost not only its starting open-side flanker – a key man in initiating attacks and providing the first line of defense on any team -- but also one of the team’s most experienced players, and, above all, an inspiration and a leader. Then the entire team received messages from starting outside center, Grass Lake HS senior Eddie Alexander, begging someone, anyone, to step forward with a pair of pliers and remove an infected tooth, which was causing him migraines so powerful that he could not play. Fortunately, good sense prevailed over the urge to compete, and Alexander spent the day at the UM emergency room (supported by Hinkle, foregoing the opportunity to support all his team mates from the bench in order to support one team mate suffering very significant pain), but Dexter had now lost three key men. Excellent replacements were drafted in: DHS Senior Anthony Esposito started at lock; DHS Sophomore and B team scrum-half Erick Leon started his first A team match in a new and very different position, as Koch’s replacement; and DHS Sophomore and B team center Chris Bryson came in for Alexander. All were to play extremely well, but the experience level had gone down considerably. Only four-year hooker Ryan Calhoun (DHS Sr), whose white scrum cap has led so many charges from the Dexter forwards, half-backs Guy Burke and Gordon Makin (both DHS Jr) and inside center Tony Shiguango (DHS Sr) had more than a season under their belts in the XV that lined up to face a Grandville team with three men who had played together for six years, representing a school with around 100 active players.
As the underdog and the less experienced team, the Devils badly needed to score first, which is exactly what they had done when they rattled number nine high-school club in the nation Westerville, of Ohio, at the Midwest Championship in Elkhart three weeks ago. But it was not to be: Grandville dominated possession and attacked almost flawlessly from the kick-off. Throughout the first half their forwards seemed all-powerful. The Devils defended ferociously, but the well-drilled opposition pack rucked and mauled well, and executed from set pieces (scrums and line-outs) perfectly. After five minutes they ran in their first try (subsequently converted) from a five-metre scrum; four minutes later a Grandville maul crossed the Dexter try line and touched down. Dexter had very little possession, and could not get the ball out quickly to its star winger, DHS Senior Matt Kasten; the only long attacking play of note in the first half came when fly-half Gordon Makin ran 30 metres through the Grandville defense, finding it surprisingly easy to evade four men, but, when he was brought down a few metres out, the Grandville defense was firm. Instead, the Devils found themselves desperately defending inside their 22-metre line again and again, conceding a third try (subsequently converted) from another five-metre scrum, when the powerful Grandville no 8 picked up the ball and simply ran over the Dexter flanker and fly-half. As the half drew to an end, Grandville collected a clearance by Makin from the Dexter in-goal area and their pack overwhelmed the Devils’ forwards, who now looked fatigued, to score under the posts, making the conversion a formality.
At 26-0, the confidence of the favorites seemed well justified, and when Devils winger Corey Robinett (Grass Lake HS Jr) kicked a penalty goal as the half expired, with the Devils a man down after one of their locks was sin-binned for retaliation, the three points on the board were but scant consolation for a half of fierce but ultimately fruitless defense.
However, the spirit that led Alexander to call for a team mate with pliers that morning pervaded his team mates in the afternoon, and the Devils were to provide thirty minutes of rousing Rugby that brought them within metres and seconds of what would have been an astonishing victory. The Dexter fans were encouraged when, early in the second half, a Grandville man was sent to the sin bin for what was far from the first high tackle on full back Adam Haas, the DHS Sophomore who belied his youth with a superb performance throughout the match, and then there was further encouragement when the same man, back on the pitch after his ten-minute absence, was red-carded for a repeat offense. Dexter, with B team captain Thore Sibbel (DHS Sr) brought in at lock, began to ask serious questions of a Grandville team that had conceded just two tries all season, but was now obliged to play a man down for the rest of the match.
With ten minutes to go, and the Devils on the rampage, Shiguango ran the ball in after excellent ball movement, and Robinett converted, making it 26-10. With just four minutes to go, and Grandville looking edgy, Makin charged down a kick in the Grandville 22 and ran on to the ball; he was stopped a few metres out, but scrum-half Guy Burke collected the ball and ran it in for another try. The conversion attempt failed, but Dexter had now outscored all of Grandville’s opponents for the entire season combined.
With about a minute to go Matt Kasten was finally able to break loose and Dexter’s most reliable play of the season was seen: Kasten leaving the defense in his wake to score in the corner. Grandville ambled back to the half-way line, desperate for time to expire, but the kick-off had to be taken, and was fielded well by Dexter, who now were playing power prop Zack Wallace, bound for Davenport University on a Rugby scholarship, in the line. Late in the game Wallace’s fierce runs with ball in hand seemed irresistible and the Dexter forwards rallied around their red-headed cannon ball. Grandville appeared to have no answer for a rejuvenated pack, where lock Viktor Morris (DHS Jr) had been a force all match, prop Jonah Hancock (DHS Jr) had belied his inexperience with a strong performance, and the loose forwards, led by Grass Lake HS Senior Spencer Flannery at no 8, with the support of Leon and DHS Senior Alexis Barberio, were now able to dominate. A very late, second red card had left Grandville more than anxious, and their supporters, so vocal in the first half, were now silent, while the Dexter fans roared on their men. An impossible recovery seemed almost within reach, although, in their hearts, those fans probably knew that there was not quite enough time and that the first half had put Grandville just a little too far ahead. Tapped penalties, determined mauling, and good ball handling took Dexter inside the Grandville 22-metre line with the scoreboard clock showing zero, but once the ball was loose there was only one likely outcome, and, sure enough, it was fly-hacked into touch and no side was called.
Dexter picked up their first Division I runners-up trophy, with Flannery awarded the Sportsmanship trophy, as the best player on the losing side. There were bitter-sweet moments for the men who had played their last high-school match – Wallace, Calhoun, Barberio, Flannery, Shiguango, and Kasten, and more than a thought for those whom injury had excluded – Hinkle, Koch, and Alexander. But there was also great optimism for the Dexter program, with over twenty players returning. Coach Paul Burke told the team, on behalf of fellow coaches Doug Karaska, Steve Turosky, and Steve Merz: “you make us so proud to be Dexter coaches”, and concluded that this team was Dexter’s best ever. Saturday’s end-of-season celebration will be joyful, despite the defeat to Grandville, and Dexter will look to the future with great hope.
Dexter’s team sheet for Saturday’s Championship match, with further details of the Dexter Rugby program, may be accessed here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqxqiu44nxy621b/DRFC%20Team%20Sheet%2025%20May%202013.pdf.
For more information on Dexter Rugby, go to the Facebook page for “Dexter Rugby 2013” or to the club web site: www.dexterrugby.com.
Follow the DRFC Twitter feed: @DexterRugby.
The Michigan Youth Rugby Association website has more information about the playoffs: http://www.rugbymichigan.com/.
