Mustangs Boys Start Season with a First

Although the Saratoga Mustangs Boys and Girls just recently made it outside for the first practices of the season, the coaching staffs have been working diligently to prepare the young ruggers for the perils of the game.  A week removed from scrimmage type play, the teams embarked on exhibition matches this past weekend to kick off the season.

On Saturday, the boys, with new head coach Aaron Noble, and a revamped assistant coaching crew, took to Waterford High School where they hosted Essex Men's High School Rugby in the second part a home and home, dating back to the late part of the 2013 season. 

Going into the match up, Saratoga had never come out on top against Essex.  In 2008, then under Coach Tempest, the Mustangs came up short hosting Essex in Malta during the regular season during Vermont Youth Rugby Association (VYRA) play.  The next season, the Mustangs were humbled in their season opener at Essex; then, in the VYRA state championship, the Mustangs played a hard fought match to come up just shy in the scoring column against Essex and ended up with the second place trophy to Essex' championship.  Finally, in a preparation match for States last year, the Mustangs had a humbling loss in Essex to the well coached Vermont squad. 

Back to the present, Coach Noble and company took quite a mixture of experience and an unfortunate minimal amount of practices into the match on Saturday.  However, no one told the 2014 Mustangs that they could not beat Essex.  So they did not burden themselves with history.  Instead, they jumped out to a 29-0 lead at halftime and held on for a dramatic victory.  More importantly, it shows that these 2014 Mustangs have once again reloaded and are off to a great start with high expectations in both CDYR play, as well as RugbyNY as a whole. 

Go Mustangs and continue to Respect your ROOTS!