On a blustery day where the high winds made the 38 degrees feel more like 25 degrees; the Exiles had an early morning match versus Loyola Bakefield winners of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), the first High School Athletic Conference to sponsor Rugby as a Varsity sport in the United States in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013. The previous day they beat competition that the exiles had tied 0-0 and won 27-14 - by scores of 41-0 and 42-0 respectively ... a seeming juggernaut. The Exiles line-up had to be juggled once again as a couple players were missing from the previous day. Aymeric Busidan stepped in at hooker.

Loyola scored in the first seconds of the match as a prop with wheels ran 60 meters down the center of the pitch breaking multiple attempted tackles - no one seeming to get the clue that hitting a powerful runner chest high was not going to bring him down.For that first minute it appeared that we might be another victim of the juggernaut - but only that first minute. The Exiles seemed to wake up and the defense stiffened; and we started winning some loose balls from their big pack. Aiden Perrenoud, again playing fullback, came crashing through the line to score a try closing the gap to 5-7. Then for most of the half, both teams exchanged possession after possession with neither side being able to break through until Loyola was able to convert a poorly thrown pass as the exiles seemed to threaten down the opposite end and score. The Exile pack picked there way down the field and with multiple challenges to score only to have the Loyola defense push us back - first year player Rodloy Pierre gathered up the ball and with determined rush scored his first try. Halftime score 10-12.

The second half was again a hard struggle with the Exiles challenging in both set and loose plays - even stealing a couple scrums from the big Loyola pack. But midway through the half Loyola scored a try to go up 17-10. Still the Exiles tried to even the score with a variety of plays. Finally, with 2 minutes left, Loyola scored another try to prevail 22-10; they certainly did not consider this an easy game. During this game, four Exiles helped out Ridgefield which was shorthanded. Hunter Mueck, Sebastien Sorrendeguy, Damond Hall back after missing last year and first year Mitch Fenton helped the nutmeggars out.

Despite the loss; this was a strong performance by the team against a strong side. We reduced are penalties and scrummaged much better even stealing a couple. Poor tackling led to the early score but this improved as the game went on until late in the match. Our penalties were very slow to develop - with discussions between players on what to do allowing the Loyola defense to get set - fast tap & goes would have kept them off balance.

An area to work on is lineouts we win. Too many times we tapped the ball directly to the scrumhalf which allowed the Loyola defense to exert immediate pressure. Some catch and holds to freeze their defense and perhaps draw them off sides would help out our attack.

We were much more aggressive at winning loose balls which kept us in the game. At times our tacklers were too passive; waiting for the runner to come to them instead of pressuring them - though our pack kept a lot of pressure on their scrum half forcing some bad passes. Referees feedback included offsides on line outs ... again; lining up offsides on rucks (in front of last foot of player in ruck) and playing the ball while on the ground. Great effort.