NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's rugby team had its four-match winning streak snapped in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday afternoon against rival United States Coast Guard Academy.
Coast Guard junior flyhalf Kevin LaMothe successfully kicked a short penalty kick in the 64th minute to give the visitors a 27-24 lead that would prove to be the difference in the match.
LaMothe's kick spoiled Norwich's valiant comeback efforts after the Cadets rallied from a 24-10 second half deficit to tie the match with back-to-back strikes from Chad Wasson (Clancy, Mont.) and Richard Shear (South Africa) in the 52nd and 55th minute respectively. Chris Hein (Baltimore, Md.) made both conversions after the tries to briefly tie the match up at 24 before LaMothe's heroics.
Coast Guard (4-0 NECRC) didn't take long to draw first blood in the match as it scored less than two minutes into the match to take a 7-0 lead after a successful conversion from Grant DeVisser.
Norwich (4-2, 3-1 NECRC) answered right back though in the fifth minute when Brandon Drennan (Jersey City, N.J.) broke through the Coast Guard defense to put the Cadets on the board.
DeVisser and Lamothe increased the Coast Guard lead to 19-5 with tries coming in the 23rd and 36th minute to NU against the ropes late in the first half. However, Shear responded by scoring a try on a pass from Long Ding (Qin Dao, China) in the closing moments of the half to cut into the deficit and make it 19-10 heading into the halftime break.
Just like the first half, Coast Guard struck first in the second half with Isaac Babcock scoring a try in the 46th minute to put the visitors up 24-10.
Norwich had its opportunities in the final 10 minutes of the match to try and tie the match. The Cadets nearly touched down for a try and had two chances where they could have elected to go for a three-point penalty kick to try and tie the match. However, both times NU elected to go for the win and couldn't quite get over the goal line.
The Cadets now close out the regular season with two road matches at Tufts on Saturday, Oct. 20 and then Boston University on Oct. 27.
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