Irish Canadian Rugby Club 45 - Brantford Harlequins 5
28 / 08 / 02
League

An unusual quick start carried Irish Canadians (8-2 and 41 pts) past Brantford (0-10 and 0) 45-5 in Marshall Division play on Wednesday night.

Despite the abscence of Jay Verstraten, Tom Madden, Dean Maclean and Brett Domenchuk the Irish ran in five first half scores, including three in the first 15 minutes, to settle the outcome.  Brantford, also clearly lacking key starters, were nonetheless game competitors throughout.

The Irish tries came from Peter Smith, Alex Maggiacomo (his first in five years!), Kyler Petrie, Rob Galbraith, Jon Ashley, Andrew Yearwood and George Azar.  Ed Gardner was 5 from 7 kicking.

The win moves the greens past Oakville (39) and York (38) with four games to play in a tight league race.

"A tough situation for both teams in a mid-week game," noted Irish coach Mark Winokur "and the normal intensity was lacking-but we did enough good things to make the outcome pretty clear."

The Irish run-in has Fergus at Fletchers on Sept. 7; at Oakville on Sept 14; home to York on the 21st; and Markham away on the 28th.  York and Cru face off on the 7th in a game that will give the winner much hope.

Team players and officials are hoping for as much support for the run-in as possible; with the tightest league race in years on tap, that support may provide a significant edge.