Historic Win For Montauk Ruggers

Playing as if possessed, the Montauk Rugby Club so dominated six-time Northeast-Regional Champion Burlington (Vt.) in the regional Division II final in Uniondale on Sunday that even the local side's players were somewhat awed by the 52-19 score.

"This is the biggest win we've ever had in the history of the club . . . by far," said Frank Bistrian, Montauk's number-eight man. "Everybody played up to or or beyond their potential. Today, there were no weak links."

Bistrian recalled having said to Rob Balnis, the fly half, who had come up for the game from Frostburg State in Maryland, that the final would probably go down to the last minute.

"I said that based on what we'd seen the day before, when Burlington (a national Final Four finisher last year) won a tough game with Monmouth (N.J.). Burlington wound up winning 23-11 - they scored a try in the last minute. For most of the game, the lead was around five or seven."

Fly Half Rattled

"We all thought we would be in for a tough game - and we were," he continued. "But our game plan worked. We rattled their fly half, who had kept them in the Monmouth game with his kicking. We ran at him out of the lineouts and, defensively, we stuck him whenever he got the ball. Pretty soon, he didn't want any part of it."

Montauk's eight tries (rugby's equivalent to touchdowns) resulted from the open-field play of its fierce forwards, from whose rucks or mauls Tom Piacentine, the scrum half, would play the ball out, either to fellow forwards if Montauk was knocking on the door, or to its fleet backs if the ball was at or near midfield.

Walker Too

Simi Lui, a stocky Tongan wing forward who joined the club recently - much to the team members' delight - broke the ice with a try in the ninth minute, taking the ball from Piacentine, who had formed a ruck within 10 yards of Burlington's try zone. Lui's fellow wing forward Brendan McGorisk's conversion kick was good for a 7-0 lead.

Another forward, Dennis Walker, who plays in the second row, made it 12-0 six minutes later, finishing off a surge that had begun about 20 yards out with an exchange between Balnis and Kevin Bunce, the inside center, who repeatedly leveled opposing backs in the first half with jarring hits.

McGorisk's point-after attempt again was good, and Montauk was on its way.

By halftime, the locals had built up an insurmountable 26-12 lead as the result of a second try by Lui and one, just before the half ended, by Bunce. Burlington had only been able to put

up points via the fly half Steve Jurkovich's penalty kicks.

"Keep Concentrating"

"We only had one try scored on us all weekend," Bistrian said later, noting that in Saturday's semifinal Montauk had blown out Finger Lakes 69-0 (10 tries, eight conversion kicks, and a penalty kick accounted for the massive total).

By the time that try, by Burlington's inside center, Mark Civil, was scored, midway through the second half, the side from the Granite State had long been left in the dust.

During the five-minute halftime break, Paul Cleary, the hooker, who with Kevin Bunce captains the team, told his teammates not to slack off.

"The only way they can beat us is if we keep giving them penalties," said Cleary. "Keep concentrating. Keep the intensity up for the next 40 minutes. We're rattling the hell out of them."

After-Burners

And indeed Montauk continued to do so in the second half. Michael Bunce, Kevin's brother, the loose head prop forward, continued the scoring string with a try from in close seven minutes into the final frame, taking a lateral from Piacentine, and bulling his way into the try zone over a pile of bodies.

Cleary followed suit 16 minutes into the half, tapping the ball down on the mark following a penalty within the 10-yard line, and sprinting unmolested into the try zone for a 38-12 lead.

Burlington replied soon after with its only successful drive of the day, but Montauk then turned on the after-burners. In the last eight minutes, Bistrian combined with Mauricio Castillo and John Peele on dazzling 40-or-so-yard scoring scampers, the latter of which began with a maul spearheaded by Chris Carney, a winger that day.

"A Little Revolution. . ."

If further evidence was needed that Montauk was the hungrier of the two sides, it was provided by the fact that only one player was persuaded to come out of the game because of injury.

Tom Hand (shoulder), Walker (wrist), Cleary (knee), and Piacentine (neck) were all downed for substantial periods, during which the clock stopped, but only Piacentine, the side's eldest competitor at 39, had to come off, near the end of the game, after having been dazed by a blow to the windpipe for which Burlington was penalized.

"He's okay," Bistrian said Monday. "It was a physical game, but we're all healthy."

Douglas Shimel, Burlington's captain and one of its prop forwards, said in accepting the runner-up trophy, "It's said a little revolution every now and then is a good thing. So, I guess," he said with a smile, "we'll see you in San Diego and kick your asses then."

Off To Dallas

Presumably very few who had just witnessed Montauk's historic win, avenging a 28-23 loss to the Vermonters in this contest last year, were inclined to agree with him.

Charlie Whitmore, who founded the Montauk Rugby Club in 1973, and who is its president, accepted the Northeast regional trophy - the first such the locals have won in the club's 24-year history. Brandishing it aloft, to cheers, he said, "It's a tremendous pleasure watching you guys play. I hope I can come here every year and do this!"

Because it is the Northeast champion, Montauk apparently will be seeded fifth among the remaining 16 sides in the national Division II tournament. The side is to play next in a four-team tourney in Dallas, Tex., over the May 17-18 weekend. Other Sweet 16 brackets are being played in Chicago, Denver, and the West Coast.

Final Four?

"We'll be seeded first in Dallas - that's why this game was so important to us," said Bistrian. "If we win both games there, we'll play in the Final Four in San Diego over the May 31-June 1 weekend."

Meanwhile, to keep itself tuned up, Montauk is to play Old Blue, a powerful Division I side, at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon, and it will play in the Long Island Rugby Club's tournament at Eisenhower Park, near the Nassau Coliseum, on May 10.