Following the Easter break NYM continued their tough schedule with a game against National D1 Sweet 16 contenders New Haven in the final home game of the season at Pier 40. Continuing their purple patch NYM came off the field with a tough 15 – 10 win. The Bs lost a tough encounter vs North Jersey “A”.

Match Report: New York-Manhattan “A” vs New Haven
May 6^th 2006, Pier 40. Kick-off 7:30pm

Score: NYM 15 - New Haven 10

Last Fall NYM put in a stunning first half to leave New Haven reeling at halftime 9 - 3 down. New Haven subsequently proved their Sweet 16 caliber by coming back to win with 30 unanswered points in the second period. This weekend they traveled with a lighter squad due to injuries and the resting of several first teamers ahead of next weeks knockout rounds. However, the NYM team had changed vastly since last fall also with two aging maestros called in to prop due to injuries and other commitments severely depleting our front row resources. NYM picked up where they left off against NYAC though for Fitzy to open his account in almost exactly the same manner, taking a sweet ball back against the flow to score under the posts, making the conversion for Matt Smith nice and easy. Despite the favor generally being with NYM, New Haven managed to pull a penalty kick back before Matt Smith scored his first penalty from his second chance. The first half was notable for a lot of grunt, with some nice darts by Eddie Cullen and John Yuhas, and some fearless defense. Fitzy, John Yuhas, Eddie Cullen and Chris McDermott were all instrumental in rocking New Haven back with some hard hitting. Despite this, and a great goalline stand, New Haven did manage to penetrate the defense with their flanker speeding through the first gap that showed itself all day to touch down. The conversion made it 10-10 at the half.

Early into the second half our front row was depleted even more by the loss of T-Bone, meaning it went to uncontested scrums. The second half was a real grind. NYM would pin New Haven back into their 22 with booming kicks from Matt Smith whenever New Haven threatened NYMs own half. NYM also consistently broke the gain-line through the backs with Eddie Cullen, then Olivier Loudig, making some sharp beaks. Midway through the second half a foray into the New Haven was continued by Matt Smith who although wrapped up by two tacklers still managed to offload again to the supporting Ed Brydon. Ed spread the defense wide and threw a long pass Steve McLeod who was left with a one-on-one. In classic winger style he stopped his man with an in-and-out and went round him to dot it down in the corner. The game was played out with NYM making the most of the territory without actually finding the final stroke to punch home a finishing score.

Team: 1. Thomas McMahon (Cody Eckstein, 50 minutes), 2. Matt Persanis, 3. Mike Annicelli, 4. Scott Crafton, 5. Chris McDermott, 6. Michael Toth, 7. John Yuhas, 8. Gabriel Fuoco, 9. Ed Brydon, 10. Matt Smith, 11. Steve McLeod, 12. Brian Fitzgerald (captain), 13. Eddie Cullen, 14. Olivier Loudig, 15. Brian Eastman.

Man of the Match: USA U19 Eagle Eddie Cullen did some nice work in his debut for NYM, Chris McDermott put himself around the park while Gabriel Fuoco tackled everything as usual. Matt Smith and Fitzy also put in another couple of strong performances. However, the Energizer bunny that just keeps going and going in both attack and defense is John Yuhas!

Match Report: New York-Manhattan “B” vs North Jersey
May 6^th 2006, Pier 40. Kick-off 9:15pm

Score: NYM 3 - North Jersey 42

This loss was a case of not sticking to the NYM game-plan, being light in numbers with many people having to fill in where they could, and the inclusion of some inexperienced players. North Jersey was allowed to get their heads up early and play their own game. They like to play it through the forwards and once they had established this platform their backs could run and large holes due to NYM being sucked in. With a quarter of the game gone new Welsh star Henry Williams had to be carried from the field with concussion after banging his head against the ground in a tackle. From there on the team lost its shape. The scrums were not pretty and North Jersey used their maul to great effect. The only points NYM had to show for themselves was a smartly taken drop goal by Gianni Lopez near the end of the first half. Team: 1. Nick “The Greek” Mastrogeorgiou, 2. Ramrod, 3. Drew Fautley, 4. Cody Eckstein, 5. Rocco, 6. Pete Smith, 7. Jeff, 8. Manuel Saez, 9. Henry Williams (Ed Brydon, 20 minutes), 10. Gianni Lopez, 11. AJ Fautley (Ali, 60 minutes), 12. Mike Carruthers, 13. Tom Lorenzen, 14. Joe (Bill Ezzo, 60 minutes), 15. Luca Loguercio.

Man of the Match: For never giving up, some nice little runs and good hits when he could get his hands on his man, Tom “Trainwreck” Lorenzen.