Familiar face helps spoil MIT’s day

On Saturday, April 14, 2018, MIT traveled to Randall’s Island in New York City to take on the Village Lions. It was a beautiful spring day with the sun shining, the flowers starting to bloom, and the smell of a local sewage plant hovering over the field. Heavy traffic and low numbers forced MIT to start the game with just 14 players due to the team’s match secretary scheduling an early kickoff at the crack of 4:00 PM. However, MIT may be considering trying this approach in the future, as they were able to get out to a quick 7-0 lead after captain Alex “my hips don’t lie, but also they don’t work sometimes” A. ran over for a try despite the team being down a man.

In addition to playing down a man, MIT was also forced to borrow players from the hosting side. The team knew this beforehand and James gave a speech saying, “Look. Hacksaw is not walking through that door. Alan isn’t walking through that door.” Interestingly, the Village Lions did not offer the assistance of Fernando, who used to play in the backs for MIT. Perhaps the Lions did not want to offer a player that would be able to fit right in with the MIT players, or perhaps they knew how valuable Fernand-foe would end up being later on in the game. Regardless, MIT added another try from Alex A. to make it 14-0. MIT were feeling good, but let their guard down and started committing dumb penalties, giving up big chunks of yardage to the Village Lions. The Village Lions were able to put in 2 tries before the half to make it 14-10.

The Village Lions brought on a large number of subs after the half. MIT looked to their bench to do the same but all they saw was a broken James, Matt’s kids, and a couple of empty water bottles. Having already recruited Erik’s brother to form the most successful Johnson & Johnson tandem since the band aid and baby oil guys, MIT were out of bench options and everyone had to put in the full 80 minutes of work. MIT added to their lead after Frank took the ball weak side to make it 19-10. The Village Lion’s fresh legs were too much for MIT and they scored to make it 19-17. Then Fernand-foe pulled a sinister betrayal and touched down for what would prove to be the game winning try against his old club. The Village Lions added on another score as time expired to make the final 31-19.

Man of the Match: Sasha

MIT will apply Neosporin to their sandy wounds and Harry Potter scars and then will host Old Gold next Saturday, April 21, 2018, at 1:00 PM at Briggs field.