Old White OB vs Renegades OB: 15 - 6

Old White A vs Renegades A: 29 - 15

Old White B vs Renegades B: 15 - 0 (official), 39 - 41 (unofficial)

 

Atlanta -- Saturday, November 15th 2008. by Bo Marr and Matt Grinney

 

VICTORY!! The Atlanta Old White machine roars forward on the momentum of a sweep in the Atlanta Cup where all Old White sides stayed undefeated by the official scores. Well done all around. All of Old White deserves to be proud. The Atlanta Renegades deserve credit for their effort and their sportsmanship demonstrated by a good showing at the Old White social, even in defeat. Unfortunately, they were unable to field enough players to make all three games official, but were gracious enough to put out a side reusing players from their other sides.

 

OLD BOYS

 

In the first match, the Old Boys came out in excellent form defying age with their performance. The try scoring was started by the likes of Greg Howard who in a herculean effort, not only blocked a Renegades kick, but was able to scoop it up and win the race to the the try zone. A simple try in the corner not being enough for Greg, he then proceeded to stiff arm several Renegade defenders to center the ball underneath the posts. Old White up 7 - 0. The Renegades Old boys met an unforgiving wall of defense, where mercy would be hard to find all day, led by Steve yeager, Erick Reynolds, Dardin Couch, Bill Pike, Lane Young, Dan Baerwalde, Mike Herndon, Mike Brautigan, Clinton Criddick, and Jim Haskin in the pack.

 

The final try scored by the Old Boys came off of a series of plays deep in Renegades territory. A series of unrelenting crashes inside the 5 m line saw Old White break the defense and put the ball down for an unconverted try. The Old White backline led by Tyler Dixon, Greg Howard, Tom Shoupe, Jay Smith, Paul Bahl, and Scott Flanagan played the kicking game especially well all day. All in all, the Old White defense was able to hold the opposition tryless. Several of the Old Boys are commended not only for their efforts in the Old boys game, but also in joining the Division II side for another romp around the pitch. Final Score 15 - 6.

 

A-SIDE

 

In the second match of the day, the coveted Atlanta Cup was on the line in the Division I matrix match. In the games opening minutes, Old White was already on the offensive. Charlie McFeaters broke away to the openside of a scrum breaking several tackles and finally dumping off to Bo who went down after sprinting another 15 meters putting the entire Renegades side on their heels. Immediately, the Old White backline of Marty, Ron, Marnus, Erik, Richie, Mike, and Dave, who made quick work of the opposing backline all day, got the ball out to the wing where Richie put the ball down for the first try of the day. Old White up 5 - 0.

 

Soon after at midfield, the Renegades attempted to counter with a ball out to their backline where the outside center dropped the ball and knocked it forward; very unlucky indeed. Mike at wing capitalized in a big way by scooping and beating all Renegade defenders the remaining 50 meters to the center of the tryzone. Old White up 12 - 0.

 

The renegades were not without fight however, and after several penalties awarded to them, made it down inside Old White's last 10 meters. The continued to pound at the Old White defense, but the core of the pack, made up of Bambi, Joe Guilmartin, Joe Lang, David Ngamau, Kevin Warde, Hunter Clark, Bo Marr, Keith Strellis, and Brian "Stetson" Fenik held strong never allowing for an easy try. The Renegades finally put the ball down in the absolute edge of the tryzone. Old White still up 12 - 5.

 

The remaining tries scored in open play, where Old White was clearly dominate, put the game away for good. After the Old White backline abused several defenders with a line break to put the ball deep in opposing territory, the Renegades got the ball back and swung it out to their backline. Once again, their line was no match, and Marty intercepted the ball and returned it for an unconverted try. The fourth try earning Old White a bonus point came when Stetson kicked a ball out from under a ruck, again creating a loose ball situation. Streaking down the field, Stetson outpaced several opposing players and went to kick the ball again. The opposing fullback got there first and tried to kick himself but missed so Stetson quickly dove on the ball. He popped out to a supporting player who passed to the hooker, Joe Lang, out on the wing. Proving why Old White has one of the fittest packs in the country, the hooker beat everyone on the outside and centered the ball in the tryzone for a converted try.

 

Last but not least, Charlie set a new record for most stiff arms and broken tackles to score a try. On a forward crash ball near the 22 meter line, Charlie most closely resembled a tank, broke what seemed like 10 tackles, and put the ball down forcefully for our fifth try of the day. Old White A wins 29 - 15.

 

B-SIDE

 

Matt Grinney, the man of the match, was kind enough to send in his take of the game.

 

In a brilliant effort, Old White's Division II side came out strong and played extremely well against their archrival Renegade side, putting up the most points for an Old White Division II side in 3 years. Ekypop "Iggy" at scrumhalf started off the scoring early in what would turn out to be an extremely fast paced game. The forward pack hit hard all day evidenced by Geoff McDonald, who was sent off the field bloodied up from a good bout of hard hitting who was aided in this regard by the rest of the pack: Nikolai Ambrosini, Brandon Culpepper, Bill Pike, and others. Coach and player, Francesco scored two tries on the day, possibly breaking Charlie's earlier mentioned record. Both tries were long scores coming from a great effort off of the scrums and rucks. On one play, Francesco quickly pounced on a loose ball bouncing out of a ruck and carried several defenders who he was stiff arming for a good 20 meters. The defenders eventually dropping in defeat. Francesco then broke out of the stiff arm and ran the rest of the way for a centered try. Matt Grinney and the backline made up of Tyler, Jason Bruce, Sean Page, Danny, Seth, Luis, Joe Shorter were able to use smooth moves and quick plays to get in the tryzone several times themselves. An all-around fantastic effort invoking pride in all of Old White. Well done.

 

 

 

Addendum: It should not go without mention the dedication to the team that Chris Kombo displayed this last week. For those who don't know, he literally stepped off the plane from a 6 month trip in Brazil and came straight to our Nashville match from the airport and not only cheered us on, but filled the role as touch judge. With his bags not even unpacked yet, he came to crossfit the following monday and attended every practice last week. He did a great job at scrumhalf for all 80 minutes, coming up big for us when we needed him most. Thank you, Kombo.