Most of the time, a team will begin its season with high expectations, whether realistic or not. The men's rugby club, however, is not like most teams. Based on low turnouts in pre-season practices, and a 17-8 season-opening loss to the Bridgewater State Visigoths, the Judges had low expectations. Any remnants of those naysayings were dashed to bits when the Judges won the Division Four New England Rugby Tournament on Saturday. "I'm surprised to say the least. We definitely overachieved based on early in the season," Co-captain Joe Bellantuoni '03 said.

After an unexpected season in which the Judges went 3-1 overall and 3-0 in their division, the team made the short trip to Newton to take on Lyndon State in the tournament quarterfinals. The Vikings (5-3) were fresh off their second-consecutive season over .500, after going five years without winning a game. They have many large players and a very physical playing style, which contrasted with the speed and relatively small ruggers that play for the Judges.

On a day when it was windy and cold, the Judges warmed up quickly. After a brief period where both sides battled for momentum, Brandeis took control as both Elie Schwartz '04 and Bellantuoni advanced the ball near the Viking goal before Dave Lubinisky '04 was able to take the ball in for the try. Jeremy Ullmann's '03 conversion was unsuccessful, but Brandeis did not relinquish momentum, and led 20-0 at the half.

In the second half, the Vikings tried to rally, but they were unable to make a dent in the Judges' lead. The second half began much like the first, as Josh Sugarman '05 dove over several defenders after a short run for a tri. Following another score shortly thereafter by Co-captain Joel Borovsky '03, the Vikings were totally demoralized and began to argue among themselves.

But, Lyndon State regrouped and mounted a scoring drive that brought them near the Brandeis goal for the first time in the game. The Vikings' threat ended when the Judges intercepted the ball on a line-in, and ran the ball back into Viking territory.

The Vikings did make one more serious attempt to score. After a long zigzagging run by Sugarman and ensuing tri by Borovsky, the Vikings attempted a kick which would have given them three points, but the ball fell harmlessly into Sugarman's arms, well wide of the goal. He booted it back towards the other end of the field.

Sugarman scored the final tri as the game came to an end with a final score of 49-0. It was the Judges' fourth consecutive shut-out.

"They won 90% of the scrums," Lyndon State Captain Mark Dohelan said. "We give them credit. We've seen their scores, and they're a very good team."

Despite the ease of the victory, Bellantuoni was not as pleased as one would expect. "We controlled the ball on the forwards, we cleaned up the back line play, and things kind of fell into place, (but we made) too many penalties and didn't play a clean enough game in the first half. We're going to have to clean it up or we won't do very well."

In the championship game, Brandeis faced Colby-Sawyer College, which had defeated St. Anselm College in the other quarterfinal. As the final began, it was unclear whether the Judges had made the necessary adjustments after the first game, as neither side was able to move the ball very much. But, the Judges eventually took control, and it looked as though the final might be a repeat of the quarterfinal. Brandeis was stopped several times near the triline as they were unable to take advantage of early scrums and penalties.

Colby-Sawyer then began to establish its own offensive momentum after returning an interception to midfield. On the next play, Schwartz injured his shoulder and did not return to the game. Things only got worse for Brandeis as, despite playing strong

defense at the triline, they were unable to keep the Chargers from scoring and taking a 5-0 lead. The Chargers then had a break-away, and two passes and a successful conversion later, they had a 12-0 lead.

At this point, Brandeis was colder than the weather, but after another Colby-Sawyer interception off of a line-in, they intercepted it back and after a short series of passes, Sugarman ran into the trizone for the score. Ullmann made the conversion and the Judges went into halftime down 12-7. Bellantuoni was very displeased with the team's play in the first half."We're not playing too well so far. We're going to pick it up in the second half," he said.

That is exactly what they did, and as the half began, the Judges quickly moved deep into Colby-Sawyer territory. Play was temporarily halted because of an injury to a Colby-Sawyer player, but the Judges' momentum was not, and they scored a tri on one of the most exciting plays of the day. Borovsky carried the ball near the goal, but met a wall of defenders. He then bounced back and rolled to his right and ran along the triline before passing it back to Bellantuoni who passed it to Sugarman who then passed it to Peter Dempsey '03 to scored the go-ahead tri.

Ullmann made his second conversion of the game, and Brandeis led 14-12.

Brandeis was now in control of the flow, and after several more minutes, Sugarman scored to give Brandeis a 19-12 lead.

Colby-Sawyer, forced to respond, mounted another drive. After a scrum near the trizone and a kick by Brandeis, the Chargers recovered a loose ball and nearly scored, but the ball rolled out of bounds in the trizone. The Judges then had a breakaway which led to a score by Seth













Woolf '04 and a 24-12 Brandeis lead.

Neither team was able to make very much progress after that, but Colby-Sawyer was desperate for a score, and was able to take control of the ball. They came close to scoring on several occasion, but were held at bay for a time by the "Deis D, until the Chargers were able to capitalize on a penalty to make the score 24-19 with 30 seconds remaining. Brandeis was able to kick the ball away from their half of the field as time expired. After the game, the bell tolled for Bellantuoni as he was named tournament MVP.

The Judges were ecstatic.

"(I'm) elated. I'm very happy. I think we worked hard and deserved to win," Bolovsky said.

"I think we played well as a team, and that's why we won. We used everyone on the field. Everyone was talking and communicating and that gave us an advantage," Bellantuoni added.

The Chargers, however, had expected to win the game, but fell short of their expectations.

"The pressure was on us. We had a little bit of a lapse, Brandeis picked it up, and it took us a while to reply. Brandeis answered well, but I'm surprised we lost," Colby-Sawyer Coach Chris Reed said.