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Jonas Emilsson

Thanks to a solid second half of Rugby the St. Francis Browns opened up their season with a victory over the Central Memorial Rams in senior boys Div I action.

Taking advantage of a shortened Rams bench, the Browns padded their 19-12 half-time lead to eventually settle on a 38-12 win.

Fly half Evan Kopjar led the Browns with three tries and Kevin Logel, Matt Herasymiuk and Ryan Graham each crossed the line once apiece to take care of the scoring.

Brandon Hossack and Jordan Tolton-Ropchan scored tries for the Rams.

Despite not having a lot of extra bodies on the sidelines ready to jump in, the Rams put up a valiant effort in the first half.

They successfully controlled the ball deep inside the Browns’ end for extended periods of time thanks to quick ball movement and relentless pressure.

Eventually they were rewarded for pinning the Browns deep in their own end when Hossack scored a try in the latter stages of the half to give the Rams a 12-7 lead.

But Kopjar quickly responded for the Browns with his second try of the match to square the score at 12-12.

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The Browns took the lead, which ended up being a lead that they would hang on to for the entire match, just as first-half time expired when Logel crossed the line after some terrific counter attacking by the Browns.

With momentum clearly on their side, the Browns opened the second half determined to put more points on the board to give them the ever-important season opener victory.

Thanks to the short bench, the Rams now had tired bodies on the field, and they were unable to stop a Browns attack that became a lot more sharper as the game wore on. The lack of fresh legs also kept the Rams from gaining any offensive momentum.

“We picked it up in the second half with better pressure and quick ball movement.” said Kopjar.

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Browns’ head coach Gerry Audia was also impressed with his teams’ effort in the second half.

“I thought our guys played really well,” said the coach. “We had a slow start and then we started to play more as a team, and that was good to see.”

It’s difficult to say whether the Browns’ second-half success was due to Browns finding their game or the Rams being tired because of the lack of extra players.

But either way, they proved that they’re a team capable of putting points on the board when the pressure is on.

I have pretty high expectations,” said Audia when asked what his hopes were for his team this season. “We should be pretty close to the top and competing with the upper teams like Bowness, Wise Wood and Aberhart.”