The second game of the day saw the Middle School Exiles facing the Frederick Falcons. We lost another player and were down to 13. The team Captain took initiative and reached out to his friends at Gonzaga High School. Four freshmen answered the call, Matt Freeman who is an elite rugby, and is a former Exile playing for our U15’s last year. He was joined by teammates Tyler Strachan (also a former U15 Exile), Gordon & Liam. Now we were going to have the luxury of 2 substitutes. However, just before game time, we found out that they would be arriving a few minutes late. Since this was a middle school bracket; the Frederick coaches were advised of our guest players. Although, the Gonzaga players are in high school they still met the U15 age requirements Frederick advised that they only had a couple reserves and we agreed that the Exiles would play 13 on 15 until the Gonzaga boys arrived and that we could use rolling subs after that. Thanks to the Gonzaga 4 and "Gomez" from Arden, we were able to play.

Frederick had some big boys, bigger than the prince Williams crew we had met earlier in the day. The Falcons took advantage of this by keeping the ball among the forwards and using pick and goes to attack our smaller forwards. Predictably, Frederick scored early with the 2 player advantage but the Exiles were playing very hard. Some of the stand out tacklers included our smallest players. Manuel Judice and Charles Stover consistently took down larger Frederick runners with nice form tackles. Morgan White and James Piercy were very evident all over the field taking down Frederick players and preventing more scores. Despite the disadvantage the Exiles managed to win some ball and managed several attacks. Unfortunately, we had a lot of penalties called since many players do not know all the rules; but even some of our more experienced players had miscues as they tried to overcompensate. It looked like it was going to be a runaway with the Exiles down 24 points when at the 15-minute mark Bau Molinari took it in for a try. At that point, the Exiles settled in and held Frederick scoreless for the remainder of the half.

At halftime, the Gonzaga players arrived. They had been held up since games on their field had been delayed. The Middle School players had been a bit discouraged but then buoyed by Bau’s late score. With the arrival of the Gonzaga players their confidence surged. In the second half, Frederick tried the same tactics but now with Matt Freeman leading the charge; their pick and goes were stopped cold. The other Gonzaga freshmen led by example by advancing on defense and making sure hard tackles and not waiting for the ball carrier to run to them. Now playing 15 on 15 the playing field was evened up and at 6 minutes James Piercy received a pass and was able to go in for a try. Two minutes later former exile Tyler Strachan scored a try to make it 19-24. At 14 minutes, Bau Molinari scored his second try of the game and then lined up a conversion kick from a tough angle. A successful kick would put the Exiles in the lead for the first time in the match. Despite the pressure, Bau nailed it and there the score would remain. A dramatic come from behind 26-24 victory.

The lesson here is how well the team maintained their composure. Particular kudos should be given to the 13 players who played under very difficult circumstances in the first half. It is not unusual to have games go 60, 70 or even 80 points to zero when weaker clubs give up. Our stalwart 13 made Frederick work for each of their scores and kept it close enough to enable the comeback. Kudos.