East Carolinian

Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Travis Bartlett

The ECU club rugby team opened its South Matrix C Conference campaign with a win over Wake Forest this past Saturday. The 30-25 victory was ECU's third win on the trot this spring and 11th straight, dating back to the fall. The win puts the Pirates in good position to come out on top of the four-team Matrix.

The win also brings ECU's overall record to 3-0. The Pirates have already defeated both VMI and Guilford College this season by a combined score of 201-5. Wake Forest proved to be a much tougher match.

The ECU ruggers came into the game feeling the swell of confidence their previous victories had afforded them, but their confidence took a major blow when Wake Forest jumped out to a 5-0 lead. The Pirates pulled three back after fullback Robert Lee converted a penalty kick.

But the Demon Deacons kept pushing and scored another try without a conversion to go up 10-3.

Junior center Justin Bourgeois offered a simple explanation for the Pirates' slow start. "We went into this game overconfident and not as well prepared as they were," he said.

The Pirates picked up the pace in the middle of the first half. Seniors Thomas Francisco and Drew Griffin both scored unanswered tries, with Lee adding the conversions to propel the Pirates to a 17-10 lead. Both teams would add a penalty kick before halftime to make the score 20-13 heading into the interval.

Due to a first half penalty, ECU opened the second half a man down. However, the Pirates made the most of their opportunities and scored their final try of the match when senior Casey Clapp sprung flanker Aaron Olsen loose for the score. Lee added the conversion to put the Pirates up 27-13, but another mistake on a scrum led to another Wake Forest try and conversion to cut the lead to seven, 27-20.

ECU restored a double-digit lead when the Pirates banged another penalty kick through the uprights to put them ahead, 30-20. The Demon Deacons added another try to pull within five before the Pirates tightened up their defense and repelled the rest of the Wake Forest attacks to seal the victory, 30-25.

Man of the Match honors went to Lee on a day where the Pirate offense was uncharacteristically unproductive. Lee picked up the slack and went 3-for-3 on conversions and 3-for-4 on penalties to equal the output of the high-flying Pirate offense. Bourgeois acknowledged how important Lee was to the Pirates against the Demon Deacons.

Continued...

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