January 25, 2025

Stanford Men's Rugby at American River College
Sacramento, CA

Stanford 14 -  ARC 79

Stanford Men's Rugby headed to Sacramento for their first conference match of the season against host American River College in the USA Rugby Collegiate California Men's D1AA conference. 

The Beavers took an early lead scoring three tries. Midway through the first half the Cardinal capitalized on penalties and made their way into the Beavers' half. Flyhalf Thane Brueschke '25 spotted the ARC fullback in the defensive line and chipped the ball up and over. The ARC fullback won the footrace to recover the ball at the 5m. A heads up play by Jeff Edsall '25, who spotted the ball out at the ruck, recovered possession for the Cardinal just 5 meters from the tryline. The Cardinal forwards went to work behind the carries of Ben Felter '25, Nicholas Woehrle '25, and Terry Guo '28 at the line. Multiple infringements at the ruck by the Beavers led to #4 being sent off with a yellow card, a ten-minute suspension from the game. Unfortunately, the Cardinal were unable to walk away with a try despite several bold efforts for the line. Instead, the Beavers capitalized on a loose ball at the 5m taking it back the length of the pitch for a try. 

The Cardinal valiantly worked to stifle ARC's repeated entry into the Cardinal 22m, including try saving tackles and drawing ARC penalties to create turnovers. The Cardinal scored before the half after a Cardinal lineout set the platform for a strong carry by Woehrle. Scrumhalf Taki Rifai '27 delivered the ball to Brueschke who sent it down the pitch into the tryzone. With several Cardinal jerseys in pursuit, the Beaver fullback faked touching the ball into his tryzone and ran it out instead. Winger Su Reh '28 made the tackle 5m out and another penalty against ARC at the ruck left the Cardinal in striking distance once again. Edsall tapped the ball and with the support of prop Nolan Pierce '27, prop Obinna Ekeagwu '26, and lock Connor Mehaffey '25, found himself over the line for a try. Brueschke would convert for the extra two points.

The first 10-minutes of the second half showed the resilience of the Cardinal as collectively they made hard-earned tackles in open play as they scrambled to defend the speedy ARC backline. Near the 60-min mark, the trusty height of the Cardinal lineout set the stage for a backs move that found Patrick Kennedy '27 into a gap. The fullback spotted open grass and chipped the ball into the corner. With Reh, Kennedy, and centers Anders Luffan '25 and Edsall in pursuit, the ARC fullback once again made an attempt to run it out of the redzone. Edsall closed in and with the tackle in the tryzone imminent, the ARC fullback launched a desperate pass. The ball bounced and was snatched up by Felter who dove in for the try. All fifteen Cardinal jerseys had given chase and the team was rewarded for their efforts. Brueschke slotted the extra two points.

ARC made good on several first phase efforts in the second half using footwork and offloads to turn line breaks into tries. The Cardinal walked away from this match with additional learnings to carry forward and a two week lead up to their next match to make adjustments. 

The Cardinal have a bye week ahead of them before facing Cal Maritime at home on February 8th, 2025 at 2:00pm in a double header with the Women playing at 11:00am. 

Follow @stanford_rugby to check out clips from the Try of the Week.

Tries: 
Jeff Edsall
Ben Felter

Conversions: 
Thane Brueschke (2)

Stanford Men's Roster vs ARC

1. Hamza Alsamraee
2. Terry Guo
3. Nolan Pierce
4. Travis Senf
5. Nicholas Woehrle
6. Connor Mehaffey
7. Ben Felter
8. Diego Burgos (c)
9. Taki Rifai
10. Thane Brueschke 
11. Su Reh
12. Jeff Edsall
13. Anders Luffman
14. Leo Campos Yu
15. Patrick Kennedy
16. Jawad Ibrahim 
17. Obinna Ekeagwu
18. Ryan Mago
19. Haseeb Ismail