BRFC NEWS...

The Bennington men’s rugby club ran its unbeaten streak to three matches with a win against Black River and a tie against Rutland on Saturday at the Beech St. pitch.

Bennington was coming off a convincing 42-27 victory over Rochester the previous weekend, but was facing a much tougher test in perennial Vermont power Rutland. The visitors held a slim 10-7 lead at halftime, but Bennington’s Matt Perry was able to slot a penalty kick on the final play of the match to force a 10-10 deadlock.

"That was huge for us, because Rutland plays at a pretty high level," Bennington scrumhalf Matt Willey said. "Every year we’ve played them, they’ve beaten us up."

The match against Black River was a scoring fest for Bennington, as the connection of Willey to flyhalf Jeremiah Rogers to centre Blake Derington proved too much for the visitors to handle. Bennington scored on a number of breakaway tries, leaving the lopsided final at 44-5 in favor of the home team.

Willey said that experience is what is making the difference for Bennington at this point.

"We’ve been a club for four years now," Willey said. "People who came in not knowing anything about rugby are starting to understand the game, and that is making a big difference."

Saturday’s round-robin at Beech St. unofficially capped our spring season, though we will take part in the Stowe Tournament in late June.