If there had been a point spread, any point spread, the Harvard rugby club would have covered it Saturday at Soldiers Field.
Matched with the Boston Rugby Club's third team, the Crimson was expected to triumph. There was even a good chance Harvard would hand their Boston visitors the kind of beating Georgetown dreamed of giving Princeton.
But 64-0?
"It was a stellar performance, one of our best to start a spring season," Harvard volunteer Coach Martyn Kingston said. "We were expected to win, but certainly not by that score."
Before handing out kudos for the offensive performance, it would be appropriate to start with the defense.
"More than anything, I was surprised by that much defense," Kingston said. "In muddy conditions, we kept the intensity up through the whole game and shut them out."
The Crimson (11-3) has outscored its opponents, 239-43, in its first 14 games this year. Harvard, which finished the fall with a 10-3 record, has surrendered only five trys to its opponents while scoring 56 of its own.
Seven different ruggers accounted for the Crimson's 13 trys, and Chris Chriscera booted six conversion kicks. 11 of the trys were scored by the backs.
Co-Captain Scott Hilinski tallied three trys against the Boston Rugby Club. Steve Cohn, Tim Perini and Bruce Miller each added a pair of trys, and Chriscera, Jake Hill, Mike Newhouse and Co-Captain Jon Greenberg each chipped in one.
Hill got the ball rolling with a try in the game's first minute, slamming the ball down in the corner of the endzone as he outraced the defense. It was all downhill for the Minutemen after that, as Harvard stormed to a 30-0 halftime lead.
It would get uglier. Harvard tallied 34 second half points, ending the game with only three seniors on the field surrounded by nine juniors, two freshmen and a sophomore.
"That's a good indication of the youth of the club," Kingston said "We're young and we should have a good spring and an excellent fall."
Harvard will have the opportunity to keep its scoring spree going tomorrow at Soldiers Field at 5 p.m., when it hosts the University of London, which is touring America.
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