Sophomore Sarah Harmon wants to get one thing straight: The Dirty Ducks may get muddy, but they don’t play dirty.
“We are the cleanest team in our league,” Harmon said. “We don’t throw elbows, we get muddy and rough and play with everything. We aren’t dirty though.”
The Oregon women’s club rugby team sure made it painful for Oregon State on Saturday at Riverfront Field, winning 32-5 and making it six straight years without a league loss at home. The Ducks, now 4-0 in the Pacific Northwest League after sweeping league opponents Reed and OSU this fall and winter, became the Pacific Northwest League Champions after defeating the Beavers. In just about a month, they will compete in the Pacific Coast Division I regional playoffs at host school Stanford. Harmon said that if Oregon wins two matches in California, it will head to Florida to battle in lacrosse’s equivalent of the Sweet Sixteen.
“That is a huge deal for women’s rugby, especially us having half our team being freshman and coming together so quickly and being in such good shape,” said freshman Ana Roca. “To be two wins away is a huge deal.”
On Saturday, Harmon said everything went as planned.
“We played really, really well as a team,” Harmon said. “Our forwards did their part and the back line always made progress with the ball. Everyone was running and we kept a pace that Oregon State couldn’t keep up.”
The Ducks will compete in a non-league contest against Western Oregon in Monmouth, Ore., on Saturday.
Roca, who’s from California, said that she’s played rugby for several years in high school, but that the Ducks team she’s on now just seems to have more fun – and more focus.
“None of my teams has been so team oriented,” said Roca, who played fullback before sustaining an Achilles tendon injury earlier this season. “Everything we do is rugby. Actually, it’s nice being on a team that is winning and when you make a mistake, no one yells.”
Men’s Club Lacrosse
Senior Julian Coffman netted a career-high nine goals, pushing No. 3 Oregon (9-0, 3-0 Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League) to a 15-7 victory against Oregon State on Friday in Portland, which helped preserve the Ducks’ perfect record – the only team in their league with that distinction.
“We’ve had success against the Beavers the last four or five years,” coach Joe Kerwin said. “We just continued to do what we do well: Winning face offs and riding hard.”
With his performance, Coffman, the league’s leading scorer, now has 33 goals, 16 more than teammate and the league’s second best scorer, sophomore Clayton Knope.
“He always has good games against OSU,” Kerwin said. “They like to pressure out and that is a good thing for him … He’s big and fast and likes to run by guys. We hope for better balance, but he had a great game.” Coffman said he did not realize he had landed nine goals until he came out of the match with about two minutes remaining. A teammate came up to him laughing and told him.
The Ducks ran up a 6-1 advantage in the first period and held a 10-5 lead at halftime in their last meeting of the season with Oregon State. But Kerwin said Oregon committed too many turnovers on clears and struggled to settle its offense before the first half concluded, prompting Kerwin to address the situation during the break.
In response, Coffman quickly scored a goal to ignite the second half, but was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after jawing with an opponent.
“Julian is a great player,” said junior Jeff Brunelle. “He’s proved his strength against OSU … the rivalry just pumps him up.”
Both teams only scored once in the third period and Oregon netted four goals in the fourth while managing to substitute in younger bench players. Oregon outshot Oregon State 52-39 in the contest, including 16-7 in the first period.
Knope, who leads the Ducks with 17 assists, notched a game-high three assists against the Beavers and also added a goal. Senior Ryan Warren belted in a goal and contributed two assists in the victory.
Junior goalkeeper Paul Swanson led the team with seven saves and allowed five goals.
“Paul is having a good year,” Kerwin said. “Something that’s pretty underrated are the shots that are coming from offenses (that) are a result of our defense forcing bad shots. We’ve played some good teams and we’ve started out playing well. Our success is a testament to our balance.”
Through nine matches, the Ducks have defeated their opponents by an average of 9.2 points.
The Ducks next play Boise State University Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Big Sky Sports Complex in Boise, Idaho.