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Doylestown Caps Spring With PA Trophy

  • 17 May 2021
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Doylestown won the 2021 Rugby Pennsylvania Girls’ High School 15s Championship on Sunday, ending the spring season with a 55-7 win against the Moon Area Tigers. The title was two years in the making, as the Dragons dropped the 2019 title to Downingtown and then the 2020 season ended after one game.

Covid-19 halted play in March 2020 and Doylestown remained dormant until September, when non-contact training sessions were approved.

“So it was a lot of ballhandling, basic skills, getting game strategy together,” Doylestown head coach Stacy Mancuso reflected on the fall. “We spent so much time setting up how the defense would play in different situations, putting together different plays – just things that we don’t normally pay attention to. In hindsight, that really helped us execute how we did this Sunday. When you envision something and how a game is supposed to be played, that was this game. They did everything they were supposed to do and more.”

In the fall, Rugby PA held a one-day 7s tournament for high school teams that could compete, and Doylestown won its three games for that trophy. By February 2021, the team was able to conduct indoor, masked training sessions, and by March, full-contact practices and games were approved.

“I wanted to gauge where we were at so I scheduled games against teams that I thought would be more skilled than us,” Mancuso said of pre-season matches against Morris (N.J.) and West Carroll (Md.). “Those two games were really beneficial for us.”

The 15s competition included six teams – four in the East, two in the West – and Doylestown won its three league games in the East by comfortable margins. The Dragons also worked its younger players into the developmental 7s circuit that Rugby PA hosted for rebuilding or newer programs. Connecticut’s Aspetuck joined one of the tournaments as well and injected a nice dose of talent.

“The competition would have been better had it not been this type of year,” Mancuso said of Covid restrictions. “Everyone is in a different situation in terms of when they can practice and how much they can practice, so yeah, it would have been nice to see a full season where everyone was able to get together and train at the same time.”

Doylestown kept watch on Moon Area, which only had State College to beat in the West. The Tigers bulked up their schedule with multiple games in Ohio and Buffalo, and field both JV and varsity squads. When it came time for the playoffs, only three teams could legitimately field 15s squads, so the Tigers played Downingtown in Saturday’s semifinal, while Doylestown earned the bye into the title match. Moon Area won 32-17, as Vivian Funkhouser (2), Shea Evans, Kieran Kelly, Allie Lerch and Emma Perry scored tries, and Alayshja Bable added a conversion.

“I came down on Saturday with a couple of players to watch Moon play, and after watching that, we changed up some of our game plan,” Mancuso said. “They were bigger in size and used it well, especially right off the breakdown, popping it out to some of their harder runners. They had great momentum there and that’s what Downingtown had trouble with. So instead of contesting every ruck, we wanted to really focus on covering those A gaps and then making something happen there – whether it was a poach or just being a distraction.”

With a game plan in hand, the coaching staff pumped up the team for its culminating performance.

“Before the game, an assistant coach, Shane Flynn, said to the girls, ‘You have memories to make, so let’s make this a good one,’” Mancuso recited with a days-gone-by tone. “It’s hard to practice for a year and keep a team together, and not have any matches. And I told them, ‘You’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. Make it what you want it.’”

Doylestown did well to control both sides of the breakdown and got a leading performance out of junior Liz Johnston.

“She played one of the strongest games I’ve ever seen her play. She was an asset on both offense and defense,” Mancuso said. “She’s usually in the #2 position but I pulled her out for flanker as a last-minute changeup because she is really aggressive on defense and her tackling ability is like no other. Plus I needed someone out there with speed to get to the flyhalf and mess up the backline, and she executed perfectly. She really stepped up as a pack player.”

More possession allowed the Dragons’ back line, which contains four graduating seniors who have been playing together since 8th grade – to flourish.

“With offense, the Sophia Linder and Nina Mason combination at 9/10 is super dangerous and just brilliant to watch,” Mancuso said of USA U18 players. “They know the game so well and have played together for so long. I didn’t have to call much from the sidelines, which is nice as a coach. You do your practices and get them so comfortable that they don’t need you to call plays; they’re running their own show.”

Fullback Grace McCullough was a calming presence in the back field. She cleaned up any missed tackles and managed a hefty kicking game from Moon Area flyhalf Bable. Sophomore Maddie Doyle also had a great game at inside center, and was a force on attack and defense. She’s “one to watch,” per Mancuso.

In the second half, Linder indicated that some fatigue and injury necessitated some movement in the back line and 13-year-old Nolah Flynn replaced the Army West Point commit at scrumhalf.

“Sophia had a broken wrist all season and just came back for our scrimmages at the end,” Mancuso said. “So Nolah has been scrumhalf for us the entire season. It’s only her second season of rugby, her first at scrumhalf, and yet for as young as she is, she was very confident and calm and led the team really nicely. She was eager to jump right in and go. We helped her a little bit from the sideline but she instinctively knew what to do. She slid right in and nothing changed for us.”

Overall, Mancuso was impressed with the team’s combination of confidence, calm and aggression.

“Girls that usually aren’t that aggressive or don’t usually stand out – they were on fire,” Mancuso said. “Every single one of them was playing the best game they could have played.

“It’s so nice to see your team like that, just so sure of themselves and trusting each other,” the coach continued. “Not that I haven’t had teams like that before, but this game had a different feel. When plays were called in the back field, they pulled them off. After we scored, they came together to discuss what they needed to improve, and they were on it. When players needed to be moved to another position, it was, ‘Where do you need me?’ It went on like that for a full 70 minutes. It’s a good feeling – one I haven’t felt in a while – to see a team operate like that.”

Doylestown outscored Moon Area eight tries to one, with the Tigers’ try coming from Rayah Leech and conversion from Bable. Linder, McCullough, Reaghan King and Tamia Freeman scored a try apiece, and Doyle dotted down twice for the Dragons. Mason led with 25 points on the day, scoring two tries, going 6/8 off the tee, and landing a special three-pointer that ended up being a very important moment for the Life University commit.

“For the last two years, Nina has wanted to send a dropkick through the uprights during open play,” Mancuso said. “I told her that I’ve seen that happen once in my 18 years of coaching, but we’d practice it anyway.”

With the end of Mason’s high school career approaching, Mancuso told the graduating senior that if the opportunity for a dropkick appeared, then she should take it. That opportunity came with approximately 15 minutes remaining in the game, and the senior nailed the dropgoal from the 22 during open play.

“If you were on the sidelines, you would have thought that we were crazy considering how strong they reacted, because the whole team was so happy for her,” Mancuso said. “But that summed it up. She’d been practicing for two years and it was a goal of hers. It was there for her and she took a chance and it went it through. It was an awesome moment and the team was beyond pumped.”

It was a great ending for Doylestown, which had been nursing a wound from the 2019 state final against Downingtown. Three-quarters of that squad helped lift the 2021 trophy.

“The fact that we had a spring season and championship, everyone is so grateful. I’m so grateful,” Mancuso said. “For a lot of them, rugby is their outlet, their positive, their light. After a year of Covid, everyone needed to play and feel connected again. And they ended it the way they wanted to end it. They’re so proud of themselves, and we as a coaching staff are so proud of them”

Rugby isn’t over just yet for Doylestown. The first weekend in June, the Dragons are heading to New Jersey to participate in a college showcase organized by Morris. Doylestown will play other mostly East Coast teams on Saturday, and then on Sunday, teams will combine for a juniors- and seniors-only match, a set-up that will help recruiters isolate talent. The same set-up will be replicated for the freshmen and sophomores on Day Two.

Tonight, Doylestown is playing the first all-inclusive, special-needs rugby team in the U.S. The Barbarians are out of Blackthorn and currently field four boys’ teams based on ability level. The Dragons will run through warm-ups and drills, and then play partial-contact games against the four sets of players.

Mancuso indicated that the team is interested in summer rugby but struggling to find high school tournaments. The coach is also looking for more middle school opportunities for the feeder program. The players will be busy, however, as they’re involved in Doylestown’s robust summer flag program.

Perhaps by fall 2021, Rugby PA’s fall 7s season will be back to form, and that competition will be a good arena to regroup after graduating the majority of its starting back line.

“We’ll be rebuilding the offense and we have a lot of great, young players coming up, as well as juniors and sophomores coming back,” Mancuso said. “I wouldn’t count them out. They’re going to be a strong force next season starting with fall 7s.”

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