Bears Second XV Wins Versus Yale

Following a great win by the 1st XV, the B-side Bears took the field motivated for a win and came away with a 25-5 victory.

Play was fairly evenly matched early in the game with both sides pushing back and forth between the each others 35 meter lines. At a Yale scrum deep in the Yale end, Brown scrum half Dan Tondreys’14 wrapped up his Yale counterpart who lost the ball.  After a quick ruck and pick up, rookie center Kahlil Fuller’14 set up the speedy Tondreys who dashed to the far corner for the first try of the day and a 5-0 Bears lead. 

Six minutes later Tondreys found himself in a similar position, picking up a ball at the base of another Yale scrum, and took it 15 meters for try number two.

Down by 10 points Yale, in the 27th minute, stole a Brown line out at Brown’s 25 meter line and efficiently turned it into five points after two quick phases, and a 10-5 Brown advantage.

In the 32nd minute, Yale was again backed up to their own try line where Brown pressure resulted in several Brown opportunities. Brown’s rookie #8 Landon Turley’12 missed a couple of  opportunities, but clicked on a defensive scrum pick up as he scored his first try as a Bear.

Before the end of the half Yale found itself giving up a penalty deep inside its 22.  A quick tap to prop Will Rulifson’11 set up a successful ruck and a strong finishing run and try by lock Josh Shenkkan’14 for the last points of the half, Brown leading comfortably 20-5.

In the second half, with the temperature seeming to drop considerably, both teams made substitutions and adjustments that were geared toward seeing players in new positions. 

The excitement on the Brown sidelines took on a somber mood in the 52nd minute as John Goddard, after driving with a hard center crash inside the Yale 22, badly injured his ankle and was quickly taken to the hospital.  This game delay and the cold resulted in sloppy play by both sides, but in the 57th minute, #8 Louis Solmonson’13 took a pop off a ruck and ran 20 meters through multiple tackles scoring the final points of the match.

The match referee was Danny Saccoccio.