CHARLOTTE– The Providence Panthers Rugby Football Club rebounded from their first loss last week by beating the East Meck Eagles 62-19.
Fri, Feb 24,2017
“I’m very glad we came out here and made up for that disappointing loss last week against Hough. Tonight was a statement game, and we showed that we are still a championship contending team”, said 8-Man Corey Matthews. “We gave up some late scores, but other than that we played very well tonight. A lot of guys on this team are bruised up good, and the fact that they continue to come out here and give 100% every week is awesome. I just really hope after this bye-week we have we will all be rested and ready for the rest of the season.”
In all, 5 Panthers posted tries on the day. Mayowa Ogunmola posted 4 tries during his first game as Fly-Half, Samet Isleyen also scored three stellar tries. Glenn Tarry, Luke Dugdale, and Nikita Petrov all added a score to the total, with Freshman Jack Whitney booting 6 conversion kicks.
Providence started out scoring within the first two minutes from Fly-Half Mayowa Ogunmola taking the ball upfield and dodging all East Meck defenders. Providence kept the intensity up as they played in East Mecklenburg’s half for almost all of the game. Providence rarely played defense and was able to use their fitness to tire out the Eagles and keep scoring. They scored 6 more unanswered tries and booted 4 conversion kicks to go with the scores. Then East Meck showed a sign of life when they scored as time expired in the half. They could not convert the kick though, leaving the score at half 43-5.
The second half also belonged to the Panthers as they kept the tries rolling. The Eagles had a slew of injuries that sidelined players forcing them to play down men. Providence was able to capitalize on this and scored three more quick tries, making two of the conversions. Unfortunately Providence followed suit and had some pretty bad injuries themselves and were also forced to play a few men down. Providence finished with only 12 men on the field for the last 7 mins or so. East Meck saw an opportunity and took it as they scored twice in the final couple minutes and made all conversions, making the final score 62-19.
Providence Rugby will be back in action on March 10th as they face West Meck away.