Pagans in fight for promotion
Peterborough Pagans scored their biggest win in eight years and inched closer to possible promotion to the Ontario Rugby Union’s top league on Saturday.
The Pagans recorded their first ever win over London St. Georges fighting off a late challenge from the league front-runners to win 53-45 at Nicholls Oval.
The Pagans improved to 9-3 on the season matching London’s record and closing within one bonus point of first place in the ORU’s Marshall Championship Division. London gained a bonus point for scoring four tries to stay one point ahead of Peterborough. The first place team at the end of the regular season earns promotion to the Premier Division, where Peterborough has never played. In 2009, the Pagans won their league but were not promoted when the ORU revised its divisions and reduced the Premier by two teams.
Both teams have two games left with the Pagans hosting Ajax Wanderers on Sept. 9 before visiting Toronto Nomads Sept. 16. London visitsBarrieRFCandhostsBrampton Beavers.
The Pagans got off to a quick start andled33-19athalf-timewithLondon getting a late try. Peterborough built the lead to 50-19 before things got interesting. London scored 26 consecutive points on four tries with three conversions closing the gap to 50-45 with eight minutes left. A London penalty with three minutes to go led to a 10-yard penalty goal by Josh Boyles and the Pagans held on for victory.
“The game was enjoyable for the spectators but a little bit of a heart attack for the coaching staff,” said Pagans’ head coach Paul Hunter. “It was a great game of rugby between two teams that threw the ball around and tried to play a better rugby. There were lots of points scored and lots of tackles; exactly what we want to do to get people to come and play the game.”
The Pagans are a younger, less experienced group than London who feature national team player Seb Pearson and long-time Ontario Blues standout Derek Daypuck. The Pagans had not beaten London since they came into the division in 2012.
“We’ve said all year to focus on the process and the result will take care of itself so we tried not to get too caught up on the occasion of where we were in the league,” Hunter said. “We knew we were more than capable of competing with them.”
Pearson, who serves as London’s player-coach, pointed to slow starts in each half as his team’s downfall.
“With Peterborough being second in the league we knew it was going to be hard coming down here and it wasn’t going to be an easy game,” Pearson said. “That proved to be the case. We came out very flat in the first half and Peterborough came out hard and we paid the price in the end. Peterborough is a good team and that first 30 or 40 minutes, where we were asleep at the wheel, cost us.”
Jack Smith scored two tries for Peterborough with singles to Steve Commerford, Jordan Buck, Alex Haystead, Jimmy Taylor and Luc Pearson. Boyles had two penalty kicks and six converts.
Daniel Bald and Josh Campbell led London with two tries with singles to Ian Moraletto, Matt Bak and Pearson with five converts by Daypuck.
In Seconds action, London edged Peterborough 20-17. Tries for Peterborough went to Tyler Dunford, Luke Parage and Tyler Barker with a convert by Chad Hoskin.