Men's Rugby: Powell impresses as Tigers top Millersville Marauders

The physical Millersville side opened the scoring 11 minutes into the first half after Princeton turned the ball over with a knock-on in its own end. The Marauders recovered the errant ball and quickly touched it down for a try, the referee having permitted them to play the advantage.

Down 5-0 after Millersville’s scrum-half missed the conversion kick, Princeton continued to falter on scoring opportunities. In the first 20 minutes, the Tigers gave up two of their own lineouts in Millersville’s end of the pitch.

Junior hooker Zac Flowerman made up for the botched lineouts by setting up Princeton’s first score with a quick tap-and-go restart following a Millersville penalty. The Marauders failed to retreat the required 10 meters in time, so Princeton was awarded another penalty. Freshman flanker Matt Hepburn was the first to the ball for Princeton.

“Their defense was unorganized and I saw a hole, so I took a quick penalty and beat their first line of defense,” Hepburn explained. “When I was five yards from the try line, their fullback came across to make the cover tackle, but he was too square to the sideline, so I stepped inside and broke through his tackle.”

Hepburn’s run, which started outside Millersville’s 22-meter line, ended with him touching the ball down, trailed by a pack of defenders. The try evened the score at 5-5 and triggered 20 unanswered Princeton points.

Five minutes after Hepburn’s try, Princeton earned another lineout in Millersville territory. This time, the Tigers won the lineout and got the ball in the hands of sophomore fly-half Pete Davison. Davison popped the ball to freshman inside center Phil Halsey, who sprinted ahead to meet Millersville’s defensive line head-on. Halsey got hit but continued the play by offloading to a looping Davison. Davison made the gain-line, and as he was met by Millersville’s outside center, he found Powell on the outside. Because both Halsey and Davison delayed their passes until they drew contact, Powell only had Millersville’s left wing to beat. He powered through the defender’s attempted arm tackle to score the go-ahead try.

In the second half, Princeton controlled the field position battle by exploiting Millersville’s poor kick defense. With the wind at his back, Davison relied more on his foot, testing the unsure hands of Millersville’s deep three.

On one towering Davison punt, Millersville’s fullback made the mistake of letting the ball bounce in front of him. Right as he caught the ball, Hepburn met him with a well-timed hit that jarred the ball loose. Junior wing Mitch Adwon recovered the ball and nearly scored a try before committing a knock-on.

In the last 10 minutes, Davison converted on a penalty kick — the product of Millersville’s second yellow card — and Powell added his second try. Powell was also a force on defense. On one play, he de-cleated the Millersville runner with a textbook-form tackle. Head coach Rich Lopacki named Powell the “man of the match” for his impressive debut.

Princeton eventually emerged as the stronger team as it stifled Millersville’s uninspired attack with staunch tackling and created room for open-field running and passing with strategic kicks.

Princeton will host the New Jersey State Tournament on Saturday.