The Fort Collins Youth Rugby Boys opened the league season with a 27-19 loss to Northside in Denver on Saturday, March 1. FCYR Boys were up at halftime 12-5 but the second half saw the score go back and forth until the last 7 minutes of the match when Northside pulled ahead for the win.
FCYR Boys kicked off but started right off putting pressure on Northside and not allowing them out of their half. After a turnover by Northside around mid field Fort Collins spun the ball wide to winger Mark Rosenhagen and he was able to beat the defense to score the try. Gabe McCabe made the conversion and Fort Collins was up 7-0. The match then moved back and forth down the pitch with neither team able to finish off a drive until the 25 minute when Northside pushed it in and brought the score back to 7-5. Fort Collins didn’t let this hamper them and with two minutes before half Mitch Yake broke several tackles up the middle and scored the try to put the lead back up at 12-5 where it would stay for the first half.
Second half saw Northside come out firing and after getting the ball wide and breaking a couple of tackles they scored to tighten the lead 12-10. Northside kept the pressure on and within a few minutes of scoring they were once again able to get the ball wide and to score another try and take the first lead of the day 15-12. Fort Collins didn’t give up and with 8 minutes to go in the match Ethan Middleton sliced through the defense breaking several tackles and scored, with the conversion by Drew Grigsby Fort Collins retook the lead 19-15. Northside didn’t surrender and with 6 minutes to go they were able to once again break the Fort Collins defense and score a try to retake the lead 20-19. Finally with 4 minutes to go Northside once again broke through and scored another try and with the conversion was up 27-19. Fort Collins attempted to fight back and drove down inside the 5 attempting to score but a knock on stopped the attempt and the final whistle sounded with the final being Northside 27 Fort Collins 19.
