This past Saturday, March 6^th, Shippensburg State came to NC State for a friendly match, and to kick off their spring break. Unfortunately they had their tour bus break down midway through the trip, forcing the match to be postponed until 3pm. They also have had the misfortune of having to practice on asphalt, since their fields are covered in snow. So they enjoyed it when they stepped out into the sunny 60 degree weather on Saturday.

The game started off in NC State’s favor, where they took it into the Raiders half and forced a penalty. Will Teague converted the penalty kick from in front of the posts, to put NC State on the score board 5 minutes into the game. The Wolfpack kept the ball in the Raiders half on the attack again, and a well placed pass by Bryan Maxwell allowed Will Teague to break some tackles along the right sideline and put a try down in the corner. The conversion was not made, and NC State was up 8-0 at this point. NC State, on the attack again forced another penalty, and Will Teague converted this one to put NC State up even more, 11-0. The Raiders weren’t giving up at this point, and hadn’t in the previous parts of the game, and their forwards put up a try near the end of the first half. Bryan Maxwell finished out the first half scoring, by kicking a penalty kick to end the half, with the score 14-5.

The second half was much better for the Raiders than the first, and they were able to even up the score with NC State eventually. The Raiders posted two trys back to back, putting themselves on top, 14-15.  Shortly after the Raiders second try, NC State answered, with a break down the left side of the field, where the ball was offloaded several times until it end up in the hands of Robby Dow who was able to touch the try down between the posts. NC State was next to score again, when Bryan Maxwell, on a valiant single effort, caught the pass off the scrum and put it down in the try zone. The Raiders answered 3 minutes later with their own try, keeping them in the game in the 75^th minute. Both teams fought hard at this point since the game could go either way, but a penalty kick converted by Bryan Maxwell ended the game.

Both teams were down some of their usual starters, Shippensburg State claimed they were missing 20 of their guys. NC State was missing about 5 of their normal starters as well. The game was close for both teams for the full match, but the home team won, 27-20. This was a friendly match so the outcome wasn’t as important for the Wolfpack, but they increased their record to 5-0-1 on the semester. The B side game went forth, NC State with a motley side of current B side players and old players taking on a mix of a and b side Raiders. The game in the first half was largely on the Raiders side, with a halftime score of 5-12 in the Raiders favor. NC State B side turned it on in the second half, and came back to win 26-19. Trys were scored by David Milbern, Will Durway, Jorrie Bower and Jason Batt. Santiago Rubio converted two penalties.

The man of the match for his A side performance was Bryan Maxwell, who was also the man of the match vs ECU last weekend. He played well from the fullback position, stepping in for Greg Hesler since he was out of town for the game. Bryan stepped in and kicked for Will Teague, since he had to leave the game for a bloody nose. Bryan has been playing rugby for most of his life, and the Wolfpack has benefit from his knowledge and skill in the game this semester.

A side starters

1 Mark Addison

2 Stephan Bahner

3 Abe Harman

4 Aaron Mclean (Captain)

5 Eddie Youngs

6 Matt Pace

7 Jason Batt

8 Dylan Martin

9 Craig Maxwell

10 Robby Dow

11 Will Durway

12 Phillip Burcal

13 Will Teague

14 Tim Vinick

15 Bryan Maxwell

Subs

Alex Compton