Wharton Journal

Issue date: 10/2/06 Section: Insider

With a convincing 31-17 victory over the Wilmington Rugby Football Club last Saturday afternoon, the Wharthogs completed a near-perfect three-week pre-season, including a win over the Penn undergrads and a narrow A side loss to Drexel University. The Hogs will look to build on their preseason successes as they host the 11th Annual Hogfest Invitational on October 7-8, 2006 at Fairmount Park against Harvard, Columbia, NYU-Stern, and Cornell-Johnson. Wharton will be looking to avenge last year's nailbiting 6-3 loss to HBS in the tournament final and return the Hogfest trophy to its rightful owners.

Despite the threat of a rainy afternoon, the Hogs traveled down to Wilmington, DE to take on a tough and experienced local club side. Despite some key absences amongst the forward pack, Wharton dominated play from the opening kick-off and throughout most of the match. In particular, the forward pack played with an intensity and ferocity normally only seen at Wharton by Dean Jain commenting on the topic of grade disclosure, beating the Wilmington players to every breakdown, winning line-outs and scrums, wearing down the Wilmington defense through an brutal series of rolling mauls, and exposing gaps in the Wilmington defense for Wharton's speedy and shifty back line to exploit.

The Hogs found the try zone early in the first stanza as first-year Brendan Dillon (WG '08) capped off a lovely right-side break through a sea of Wilmington defenders by escaping three tackles and leaving more than one Wilmington player grasping at air after a fluid change of direction. Brendan was later heard asking Co-Captain Tim "Flicking the Prawn" Bannister (WG '07) for Zulu fashion advice. Tim's response: don't trip over your jock a la Michael "the Weapon" Song (WG '07) at last year's Hogfest.

Not more than five minutes later, the Hogs again found the try zone as former Demon Deacon Patrick O'Keefe (WG '07) took a beautifully-timed pass from experienced hand Len "I Already Have a Job" Accardi (WEMBA) and outraced a Wilmington defender to the left corner. It is actually a little-known fact that Patrick's marriage this summer to the former Kate Laveck is actually the first step in their plot to dominate the world by breeding fast little Irish kids.

Speaking of fast Irish kids, Co-Captain Joe "Freckles" Newell (WG '07) quickly followed Patrick's try with an audacious half-field sprint to the Wilmington try line. A high tackle and a penalty on Wilmington set up another try for the Hogs, as big prop Dalyn "I Won't Tell at Church on JT" Montgomery took the pass on a set piece from scrum-half Benat "Benat Burger" Tramond (Penn Dental) and bulled his way over the try line for Wharton's third score.

Continued...

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