A large crowd was on hand for the first home match of the season when Fort Collins Youth Rugby Boys (FCYR) took on the North Side Vikings (NS) in a league match. The match saw some hard running and hitting on both sides but a good tactical rucking and kicking game played out into Fort Collins hands for the victory and now puts them at 2-0 in league play.

Fort Collins kicked off to open the match and immediately kept up an attach in North Sides end of the pitch and after several minutes of heavy pressure on NS it forced a penalty and a penalty kick at goal for FCYR. Kick went wide but NS attempted to attack from their own five and with pressure put on by FCYR causing a turnover, Martin Bautista was able to break into the try zone to give FCYR a 5-0 lead. North Side came back in the next few minutes with the outside center breaking several tackles and getting to the outside to score for NS and tie the match at 5-5. Play went back and forth until with around six minutes to go and FCYR pressing the attack, 8-man Mitch Yake picked and took the ball weak breaking several tackles and dragging a few others to score the try and put FCYR back out in the lead 10-5. The first half was about to end when once again FCYR was awarded a penalty and Ethan Middleton converted the penalty kick to put FCYR up at half 13-5.

Second half saw Fort Collins use both a rucking attack by the forwards along with tactical kicking by the backs to keep North Side on their heels and deep in their own territory. At the seven minute mark and FCYR attacking David Ramirez crashed through the NS defense and with Ethan's conversion FCYR was up 20-5. Fort Collins kept up the attack keeping North Side in their own territory and forcing NS to commit many penalties and with about ten minutes to go in the match Justin Schaffer sliced through NS for the score and Ethan made the conversion to close out the scoring at 27-5.

Kudo's goes out to the team for playing Fort Collins rugby and sticking with the game plan and also to Justin Schaffer who is the captain of the team and was the man of the match. Also kudo's to the B-side that played in the third half and held their own against the starters from North Side, saw some great play by all of them and will be looking at some of them moving up to A-side in the near future if they keep this up.

An aggressive defense and some great positional kicking saw Fort Collins stifle Ridgeview and come away with a 17 to 7 victory in their first league match of the season. Kudo's to the man of the match Martin Bautista with his attacking from the flanker position that created many mistakes by Ridgeview in the backfield and also to Justin Whitehead with his first time at scrumhalf with some strong running and great defense that included running down a Ridgeview player to save a try.

Match started with a strong crosswind but from the opening kickoff Fort Collins drove down the pitch and put pressure on Ridgeview in every phase of the game causing Ridgeview to commit penalties that gave FCYR good field position and in the tenth minute of the match a penalty kick by Ethan Middleton put FCYR up 3-0. As the half went on the wind changed direction giving Ridgeview an advantage and just before halftime it looked like Ridgeview would take the lead when one of their players broke several tackles and was off to the races only to be caught by Justin seven metres out from the try zone to save the try and cause a turnover. Halftime saw Fort Collins up 3-0.

Second half gave the wind advantage to Fort Collins and with it the kicking game came into play more for field advantage, which once again caused Ridgeview to make mistakes and a penalty kick by Ethan put FCYR ahead 6-0. Ten minutes into the second half and another mistake by Ridgeview at the twelve metre line saw Justin take a quick tap and slice thru the Ridgeview defense to score the try and put FCYR up 11-0. More pressure by FCYR caused penalties once again by Ridgeview and once again Ethan put another penalty to extend the lead to 14-0. With seven minutes to go in the match Ridgeview finally struck with a long run to get right back in the match with a converted try that put the score at 14-7.

Ridgeview did get a spark from this and drove the ball back down the pitch from the kickoff and inside the 22 but once again a penalty would end their drive and with a quick kick by Ethan, Ridgeview was driven back behind their 22 where FCYR converged on the fullback and stole the ball, while trying to drive in for another try Ridgeview was forced to commit another penalty, which Ethan put thru to put the match out of reach at

17-7 where it would end at.

Next up for Fort Collins is the Rocky Mountain Classic at Thunder Ridge High School this Saturday starting at 10:00 a.m., then next Wednesday will be the first home match of the season at Greenbriar when they take on North Side at 5:15 p.m. in their second league match of the season.