Black and Blue romp to state semis

FRENCHTOWN — Revenge came at the right time for the Black and Blue boys rugby team.

After falling to the Missoula Mud Dogs in the regular season and once more in previous tournament play, the Black and Blue clobbered the Mud Dogs 48-10 in the state quarterfinals on Saturday behind two tries from Tanner Russell and a stellar effort by scrumhalf Brisman White.

The Black and Blue will play in the semifinals on Friday in Missoula and, with a win, will try for their third consecutive state championship on Saturday.

“Missoula moves the ball laterally so well, and they never caught us out of position once,” Black and Blue coach Bob Kiesel said. “We shut down a very good team today, a very good team. I wouldn’t have bet on that score.”

Tucker Nadeau kicked off the scoring with a try 15 minutes into the contest, staking the Black and Blue to a 7-0 lead. Hunter Wellcome’s try five minutes later stretched the advantage to 12-0, but the Mud Dogs responded with a score moments later to cut it to 12-5.

Russell punched through for his first try at the 28-minute mark, but Missoula bounced back for a score once again to make it 19-10 at halftime,

It was all Black and Blue from there.

Russell scored again to follow tries from Conner DeRue and Sebastian Koch, all three of which came in a span of 11 minutes.

Freshman Nolan White stretched the margin with a try at the 60-minute mark, and Brayden Boyle, another freshman, put the exclamation point on the blowout victory with a late try of his own.