The Hudson Valley Rebels tipped their hats to the Brooklyn RFC who battled through 80 minutes of rugby and pulled out ahead over the Rebels with a score of 3 - 12

A narrow and short field would put both sides at a disadvantage keeping the game tight and tough. Man of the Match recipient Michael Greenblatt of Highland along with David "Fooie" Mowen of Beacon, William Castellane of Salisbury Mills and Chris Soi of Beacon put up a tough defensive front from our forwards, at times with complete disregard for their own bodies. The job of clearing out the mess was the combined effort of Jay Kimler of Montgomery, Joe Dabritz of Margaratville, Eric Nicholson of Glenham, Mark Cozzupoli of Newburgh, as well as Tim Taylor of Highland, Ryan Bell of Washingtonville and Alec Smassanow who also led the frontal running attack.

Despite having their backs within their own zone for much of the match, Patrick English of Goshen, Mariano Choconi of Greenwood Lake, Mike Zentz of Mountainville never allowed the Brooklyn backs any room to run nor any gaps to take advantage of. Kieran Killeen of Pomona and Nathaniel Conkey of Cornwall kept the speedy Brooklyn backs at bay, sometimes even chasing them down from behind. Taking his share of pounding, scrum-half Chris Ray of Beacon was quick-to-react and creative in fending off Brooklyn while still distributing the ball between the forwards and backs.

In the end, the Rebel's only points would come from the foot of Jonathan Jones of Highland who kept the game within reach with a converted penalty kick. The Rebels are still positioned comfortably at the top of DIII and will undoubtedly see Brooklyn again in the playoffs to win back what is rightfully theirs.

As a sign of things to come, the Rebel's "B" squad completed dominated and defeated the Brooklyn "B" squad during the consolation game where Frank Wens of Montgomery and Brian Robertson of Marlboro played in what can only be described as brilliant.

Scoring Summary:

Hudson Valley 3 - Brooklyn 12

Penalty Kicks: (1) Jones, Jonathan