NEWS | Mystic River Rugby Club

Mystic River Girls wins 4th Beast of the East

Admin
Apr 20
2 min read

(Portsmouth RI) Mystic River HS Girls won their 4th consecutive Beast of the East tournament at the Gardener Seveney Sports Complex in Portsmouth RI on Saturday. The HS Girls competition fielded 6 teams: Mystic River, Wrentham Barbarians, Monty Tech Bulldogs, Shoreline Spartans, Providence and the Chieftains. Freshman Elinna Etuk and sophomore Annalena Irizarry made the debuts for Mystic River.

Led by senior captain Sadie Hershberger, Mystic River swept pool play scoring 109 points overall with a point differential of 85. Etuk had a stunning start scoring on her first touch of the ball and contributed a hat trick in her 2nd match. But in the final defense was the decider.

Senior Gabi Bethlendy made many sequential tackles, and the Spartans defensive pressure forced Mystic turnovers. Mystic scored first with a converted try by Costa but the Spartans shutdown Mystics offense and scored their own try before halftime leaving Mystic only up by 2 at the break. The Spartans regained possession on the restart and then took a Mystic lineout to venture inside the 22. But a dominant tackle by Hershberger dislodged the ball for Etuk to gather. Etuk offloaded to Felton-Quinn who made a no look pass to Hershberger supporting wide. Hershberger broke two tackles before passing back inside to SH Campbell to finish under the posts extending Mystics lead to a converted try.

On the restart the Spartans made a break down the left touch line only to be stopped by Bethlendy running cover. A quick tap on a side entry penalty brought the Spartans again inside the 22. But a patient Hershberger seized her opportunity to poach off a Campbell tackle 10 meters out near the left touch line. Mystic passed down the line to put Etuk in space for a 90-meter run to score under the posts. On the restart, again Shoreline made a line break down the left touch line and this time was successful to bring the differential back to just a converted try. Shoreline attempted to regain possession on the restart with a short kick that bounced into Costa's arms. Costa broke two tackles, wrong footed 3 defenders to put the match away as the final whistle blew at the conversion.

Roster:

Sadie Hershberger (c)

Veronica Felton-Quinn

Rose Winter

Zoey Campbell

Gabi Bethlendy

Jil Costa

Elinna Etuk

Annalena Irizarry

Myah Price

Pool Play

Mystic River 30 - Monty Tech. 0