Heading into Saturday’s match at Northeastern, Massachusetts men’s rugby coach Anthony Neverson was well aware of the challenges lying of ahead for him and his team.

However, his team was unable to succeed on those challenges as the Minutemen fell, 30-22, despite a strong first half.

Making things more difficult for UMass (1-2) was that its captain, Kyle Merrigan, was unable to play due to a knee injury sustained from the previous game against Southern Connecticut State.

The game appeared to be in the hands of the Huskies in the second half after a score extended their lead to 22-10 following a series of scrums.

The Minutemen responded with a score of their own to cut the lead to 22-15. But Notheastern came right back after being awarded a successful penalty kick to bring the lead to 10.

After another try and successful kick by Dean Nemeroff, UMass cut the lead to 25-22.

However, the Huskies provided the finishing blow with a try of their own with five minutes remaining to put the game out of reach.

After a series of penalties and a bloody nose that stopped play, the Minutemen knew it was going to be a rough affair.
Nemeroff started off the scoring in favor of UMass with a penalty kick setting the score to 3-0.

Shortly after, a scrum formation would be kicked away from Northeastern into Minutemen territory. But Northeastern still found a way to score by running it in, but would miss the kick, keeping the score at 5-3.

Mike Jacobs responded with a try and successful kick to help the Minutemen regain a 10-5 lead.

The Huskies tied the score at 10 after running in the ball for a try.

Northeastern responded with a successful two-point kick to take a 12-10 lead, which it carried into halftime.

Kat Kent can be reached for comment at [email protected].