04/27/2006

Traverse City rugby club drubs Lowell

Alliance romp to a 62-0 victory

by jeff peek

jpeek@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Traverse City Alliance's Dane Billingsly runs past a Lowell player during Wednesday's match.

TRAVERSE CITY — If at first you don't succeed, try, try again ... and again ... and again.

The Traverse City Alliance rugby football club had little trouble in the "try" department on Wednesday evening, scoring 10 of them in a 62-0 rout of Lowell at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School.

Corey Parshall scored three tries (worth five points apiece) and Dane Billingsley added two to lead the Alliance, who improved to 4-0 both overall and in the West Division of the Michigan Union rugby league.

Parshall, a junior at Traverse City Christian, has American football in his blood — his father, Doug, played for Traverse City Central in the late 1970s and his brother, Brian, played at Traverse City West before graduating last spring. But Corey Parshall decided that he was too small (5-foot-10, 145 pounds) to follow in their footsteps.

So why, then, did he decide to play rugby — which is sometimes referred to as football without the pads? Parshall and friend Matt Moll thought it might be fun.

Now Parshall actually enjoys the physical contact.

"I like it; it doesn't bother me too much," he said. "There's a lot of adrenalin, so if you feel anything, it's usually after the game is over.

"I like the pain," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, you run right into it," a teammate said as he walked by.

"That's something I have to work on," Parshall admitted. "I need to work on cutting a little more."

Parshall, a track and cross country runner who plays fullback for the Alliance, has been able to put his speed to good use.

"That's the only thing keeping me on the team," he said.

Dane Moeggenberg, a lineman on the Traverse City St. Francis state championship football team last fall, is one of three team members to play four seasons. Griffin Benson and Elliott Gallagher are the others.

"(The action) is non-stop," Moeggenberg said, describing what makes rugby fun. "It's always going, always exciting. There's always something to do. Nobody ever stands around.

"And the camaraderie that goes with it — it's unparalleled."

Athletes from seven area schools play for the Alliance.

In addition to the scoring of Parshall and Billingsley (St. Francis), five others scored tries Wednesday — Moeggenberg, Moll (TC Christian), Gallagher (Lake Leelanau St. Mary's), Chris Send (Suttons Bay) and Nick Niergarth (Glen Lake).

Griffin Benson kicked four conversions (worth two points each), while Andrew Dalzell added two.

The Alliance, who are in their fifth year, will play in the Midwest Tournament this weekend in Elkhart, Ind., facing the top prep teams from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa.

Traverse City finished 11th two years ago and ninth last spring, meaning it will carry a No. 9 seed into this year's action.

"We're doing pretty well for a fifth-year program," said Alliance head coach Chuck Benson, whose team has outscored its opponents 167-14 this spring. "We'll have our work cut out for us (taking on the top-ranked team from Illinois in the opener), but we've put together a program to rival schools that have been playing rugby for 50 years."

Rugby, called "gridiron" in Europe, is the father of American football. Many of the rules are the same, but rugby players wear no equipment.

The game — using a ball that looks like an oversized football — is played on a "pitch" that measures 75 yards wide by 120 yards long. The contest is divided into two 30-minute halves. The only timeouts are called by the referee.

The game begins with a kickoff and the receiving team retains possession until it scores or the ball is taken away or lost. Players can advance the ball only by running with it or kicking it along the ground or in the air. There are no forward passes, only backward laterals. There is also no blocking.

Tries are scored when a player crosses the end zone line and touches the ball to the ground. Conversion kicks are taken based on where the ball crossed the line. They must be taken at least 22 meters away from the line, often at difficult angles.

Penalty kicks are worth three points.

"It's a great game," Benson said. "I'm a football coach's best friend. We teach kids how to tackle, we teach them about proper spacing. They have to be in great physical condition because they're constantly moving. And they play by an honor code of sportsmanship and good conduct.

"There are 15 players on a side and only one referee," he said. "I think that says a lot."