A year ago the AIC rugby team started their season off with a victory over their rivals Northeastern University.

The highly contested battle ended with a 39-26 victory which gave AIC the push forward going into their season. On September 13, AIC hoped to start their season off with a win against their rivals playing them for the first time at home.

The weather proved to make things interesting as it began raining heavily an hour before kickoff. AIC’s starting line-up included familiar faces as well as new ones to the College.

The Freshman players that started the game included Jihad Khabir, Jacob Ponder, and Matty Jones who would need to fill important roles in the Yellow Jackets line-up.

As kickoff approached, both teams took the field for the national anthem and the start of the game. AIC struck quickly against an unstructured defense allowing Kurtis Werner to sneak in the first try of the day.

Northeastern worked their way back up field and set them up for a penalty kick that they would end up missing.

The crowd wouldn’t have to wait long for another try as Jihad Khabir chips the ball over an unsuspecting defense to All-American Christian Adams who would score the try.

With an early 10-0 lead, AIC would strike one more time before half as Connor Gleason dove in for a try. At half time with a 17-0 lead no substitutions are made and the same 15 men set to play another 40 minutes of rugby.

As the second half began it starts to look strikingly similar to the first half. The first try would be scored through simple offensive play leading to Adrian Ray taking the ball to the corner for a try.

Northeastern saw their first try of the day off of an offensive miscue by the Yellow Jackets making the score 22-5.

Northeastern’s spirits were picked up and dropped in almost the same instant as Gavan D’Amore-Morrison quickly got the ball on the ensuing kickoff and whizzed past a scrambling northeastern defense for a try. AIC pulled away after a 3-meter dive in by Kurtis Werner for a try to put the score at 34-5.

At 65 minutes into the game, Jamal Hadley and Skyler Adams were pulled from the game and in their place freshman Steven Fobes and Junior James Everhart took the field.

The next try was scored by Adrian Ray on a 40 meter run leaving defenders in his dust. The final try of the day could have been scored by Christian Adams but unselfishly he passed it off to his high school teammate Jihad Khabir giving him his first try as a yellow jacket. Bryce Neff made 3 of his conversion kicks throughout the match making the final score 46-5.

With a convincing victory this would appear to be the start the Yellow Jackets wanted for their season.

Head Rugby Coach Josh Macy said he was pleased even though he realizes there is work to be done.

“It’s not the one I wanted, but it’s the one I got,” Macy said.

“Improvements need to happen in team focus and structure as well as using a higher percentage of scoring chances. I was happy with the line out scrum and counter attack though. We can make teams pay with that combination,” he said.

With this victory the team hopes to continue to build their dangerous offense and shut down defense as they head into week two against a strong University of Albany team coming off of a close loss to conference champions Middlebury.