By Coach Mike Mackay
The social side, made up mostly of high school and college kids, came out of the gates strong with a 31-5 drubbing of Monmouth B and followed that with an even more impressive trouncing of NYRFC 45-5. After losing a tightly contested battle to Union 24-22, the young boys of White Plains advanced to the semifinals where they faced NYRFC for a rematch. This time, White Plains came out on top 47-5. In their second rematch of the day, we faced union in the final. After dominating play through most of the game, we let up a game-tying try in the closing seconds and then lost in overtime 19-24. Leading the young boys in tries for the day was speedster Keimon Barrow with 9. Great performances were also put forth by Naquan Lloyd (3 tries), Sayyed Muhammad (4 tries), Kadeem Chandrashekhar (4 tries), and Jinesh Shaji (3 tries). Hunter Picard was a beast in his first ever rugby experience and Bobby's buddy Chris Cho scored a try in his first game ever as well. Will McDermott and Danny Lowe both played hard-nosed defense throughout.
The premier side faced very formidable competition right off the bat, matched up against perennial powers Mystic River and NYAC in its first two games. Result: Mystic 36 WP 7; NYAC 43 WP 12. In the third game, the boys from White Plains settled down and played Old Blue B to a 19-19 tie. We followed that with a 19-19 tie with Long Island, but then lost in a sudden death overtime 19-24. In the shield final we had a rematch with Old Blue B and came up short 19-31. Onye Onwukanjo and Ike Onwukanjo led the scoring with three tries each. Bobby Keehn and David Sommerville each scored two tries on the day. And Laurence Young and Keimon Barrow rounded out the scoring with one try each. Austin Fehringer was the warrior of the day doing a lot of dirty work, and Jim Tregurtha and Jamie Everett gave us some great minutes in reserve. We also got a superb effort from the pride of the Citadel, Rick Tavarez.
Overall, a fantastic start for White Plains sevens rugby. A lot to build on!