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Hitting for a cause
Youngstown and Canton rugby teams came together for scholarship benefit
By STEVE WILAJ
AUSTINTOWN
For those unfamiliar with rugby, the inaugural Mike Hartzell Rugby Classic shed light on one component of the sport.
The players hit each other. And they hit each other hard.
On Saturday at Austintown Fitch High School, the Youngstown Steel Valley Rugby Club and the Canton Men’s Rugby Club faced off in what proved to be a violent and intense match-up. In the end, Canton was victorious, 32-22.
In the process, the charity game raised over $2,000 for the Michael T. Hartzell Memorial Scholarship. Hartzell, a Fitch graduate, was fatally shot nine years ago while on duty for the Youngstown Police Department.
“Being it was the first year, I would’ve been happy with anything over $1,000,” said Brett Grabman, a member of the Youngstown team and vice president. “I’m pretty happy with the turn out.”
Canton head coach Dan Sturtz was glad his team could help out.
“Anytime we can help non-profit and other organizations for good causes, we’re all about that,” Sturtz said. “We love to play rugby but we have good hearts, too.”
While the event was built through generosity, the playing field was anything but kind. Bone-crunching hits and brutal collisions from the un-padded players kept the crowd cheering — and cringing.
“Yeah, it was a pretty physical game,” Grabman said. “We played hard and so did they.”
Canton jumped out to a 15-0 lead after a drop goal (similar to a field goal in football) and two tries (similar to touchdowns).
Youngstown made it 15-7 with a try and conversion (similar to an extra point) in extra time of the first 40-minute half.
Down 20-10 in the 53rd minute, Youngstown took a 22-20 lead after a 40-yard try and a seven-yard try.
But that would be all the scoring for the YSVRC, while Canton added two more tries.
“To be honest, we didn’t play our best,” Grabman said. “They had a lot of speed on the outside, and we didn’t match it at times. But I thought we matched their physicality on the inside pretty well.”
Sturtz said, “It was a tough match on both sides. A very competitive game.”
The Youngstown Rugby Club and Canton Rugby Club are not strangers. The teams have more than 20 years of experience competing against each other.
“It was a pretty evenly matched game between two teams who used to play together for a lot of years,” Sturtz said. “This was a lot of fun playing against them again.”