Milwaukee Continues to Win; Improves to 2-0 on Fall Season

Milwaukee RFC travelled to Maywood, IL to take on the Chicago Westside Condors in a D2 Midwest Matchup. A perfect day for rugby saw 3 tries and Man of the Match Honors for wing Jamie Gasparella, and a try apiece from outside center Josh Kraemer and #8 Mike Knudsen. More details to come.

Next up: Wisconsin Rugby Club comes to Milwaukee on 9/17 for a 1pm kickoff at The Gun Club. Don't miss the battle between the two undefeated sides vying for the top spot in the group two of the Midwest Western Conference standings.

Milwaukee Wins in Fall 15s Debut

August 27th, 2011: The fall 15s season had begun!

Milwaukee Rugby Football Club kicked off the fall 15s campaign against a highly regarded (according to Chicago Rugby polls) Fox Valley Maoris side. Details to come; the MRFC showed up strong with a 45-12 victory and stands in first in Midwest D2 standings! Well done lads.

Next Week: MRFC travels to Chicago to take on the Westside Condors.

Midwest 7s All-Star Update

August 26-27th, 2011: A belated congratulations goes out to Jamie Gasparella who was a late addition to the Midwest 7s team roster. He joined Josh Kraemer at the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA for matches against the All-Star 7s Territorial sides and the Collegiate All-Americans. Josh and Jamie joined players from the Youngbloodz, 1823 and the Chicago Lions under Lions Coach Aaron Manheimer for a few days on the West Coast.

The team took youth to the fields against some very experienced All-Stars and Eagles and came out with a 7th place finish posting a 2-4 record on the weekend. Jamie and Josh scored 3 tries apiece and accounted for half the Midwest tries for the tournament.

More information is available at here. Congrats Jamie and Josh! Well done on the MRFC!

MRFCs Attempt to Repeat at Lakefront 7s Falls Short

July 9th, 2011: MRFC "traveled" to Veteran's Park for the Midwest's premier 7s tournament, Lakefront 7s. Over 100 teams from High School boys' and girls' to Qualifier Men and Elite Women compete on 6 pitches in front of large live and televised audience.

Pool play saw the club take on Fox Valley, intercity rival Milwaukee Harlequins and longtime 7s rival Chicago Griffins. 2 victories put the men through to the semifinal round facing a rematch with last year's Lakefront (and 5 time Midwest 7s champions) Chicago Lions. Milwaukee fell 28-0 and earned a 3rd place game rematch with the Griffins. Milwaukee led until the final minute when a disputed play off Griffins kickoff led to their last minute try and the Griffins prevailed 19-17.

Congratulations to the men on improving play throughout the day and narrowing the gap with the Griffins. MRFC has fielded a different 7s lineup each week and continues to amass qualifier points towards yet another trip to the Midwest Finals on July 23rd in Elkhart, IN.

A special shout out goes to Drew Palin and his KISS side that won the social division!

Milwaukee Takes 4th Place at Firehouse 7s

June 25th, 2011: Milwaukee took 4th place at a hotly contested Firehouse 7s in Lemont, IL. Pool play saw the MRFC, Chicago Lions, Chicago Griffins at 1823 advance and left the Youngbloodz shut out of the semis.

MRFC couldn't capitalize on their strong start in pool play and lost the semifinal and 3rd place matches. Next up: Lakefront 7s - come cheer on the men as they attempt to repeat their appearance in the finals!

Pool Play - Milwaukee RFC 12 - 1823 22
Milwaukee RFC 61 - Chicago Westside Condors 7
Milwaukee RFC 40 - Western Michigan 5

Semifinal - Milwaukee RFC 7 - Chicago Griffins 36
3rd Place Match - Milwaukee RFC 14 - 1823 21

Roster:
Kevin Smyth
Jerry Petalfski
Jason Talbot
Gottfried
Jaime Gasparella
Ruys
Mike Albert
Nick Glocke
Trevor Hergert
Rob Anderson

1st Place Finish at Youngbloodz 7s!

June 11th, 2011: Three Cheers to the MRFC Qualifer and Developmental sides for 1st place finishes last weekend Lighthouse 7s in Fon Du Lac, WI at Minnesota 7s in Eagan, MN! Most notably the Qualifer side saw 2 wins over the 1823 side that was in the championship in Iowa last weekend and dominated the competition with an aggregate score of 145-41.

Qualifier Results:
Pool Play - Milwaukee RFC 31 - St Paul 0
Milwaukee RFC 31 - 1823 15
Milwaukee RFC 28 - Metropolis 5

Crossover Seeding - BYE
Semifinal - Milwaukee RFC 22 - Metropolis 14
Final - Milwaukee RFC 33 - 1823 7

Thanks also to Coach Hickey for the great training sessions and to JD for organizing things. Looking forward to seeing MRFC's continuing success this summer! Next up: Firehouse 7s in Lemont, IL.

Qualifier Roster:
Travis
Ranger
Josh Kraemer
Alex Koivisto
Drew Palin
Mike Knudsen
Trevor Hergert
Nick Glocke
Jamie Gasparella

More pics from Minnesota 7s can be found at here

In preparation for next the next tournament check out this video from a couple years ago (last time we went to 7s nationals). MRFC is wearing the grey and black jerseys.

MRFC Opens Fall 2010 With a Gritty Win!

September 11th, 2010: The kickoff to the season was a wet and wild one characterized by hard hits, sloppy passes and a fight to the finish. With the rainy conditions it seemed that the game would be a slow, hard-hitting affair. The first half proved to be anything but - the Banshees controlled the ball and used the possession to score first off a 5-meter scrum. Their center knifed through our defense to score center post and inspired MRFC to counter with some offense of its own. The next 15 minutes saw lock Jake Gottfried and prop Cole Coopman capitalize with tries of their own after multiple phases of play. The offensive onslaught continued despite sloppy ball handling (the ball kept bouncing MRFCs way) with winger Jason Talbot utltimately scoring for MRFC's third try of the day. MRFC took a final penalty running, after 3 phases back and forth across the field, winger Josh Kraemer broke the line, was tackled at the 5 meter line with fullback Mike Albert in support to clean up the ball and touch down MRFC's 4th try as time expired. Halftime score 26-7.

The second period started with adjustments from Coach Tom Beckman and an emphasis on countering the sloppiness of the conditions and first half play with more possession and less long passes. MRFC took immediate control winning their own kickoff but while trying to exploit an overload, the Banshee fullback picked off an MRFC pass and took it the distance for the score. A period of back and forth was broken by MRFC winger Josh Kraemer breaking a long run for the 5th team try of the day. This would prove to be the final try for MRFC. A lot of hard hitting took over and MRFC's conditioning waned in the final 20 minutes as they surrendered another 2 tries. The game ended with a lot of defense for MRFC and they escaped with a 31-27 victory.

Recap:
It was great to get the win but we have a lot of work to do. Tackling, committing to the loose pieces, and conditioning were big issues for our squad. It is fortunate that we have so many athletes on the team, otherwise this game might have gone a different direction.

Notables:
Alex McCray was Man of the Match. Put the workload of tackling and rucking on his shoulders and carried the team.

Adam "Kos" Kosidowski made 3 of 5 conversions despite horrible conditions that ultimately proved the winning difference!