Laux hat-trick headlines rampant Lincoln Park as Riot are put to the sword

by thepom02 | Aug 23, 2026 | Columnists, Featured, Match Reports, News, Rugby

Chicago Riot 24 Lincoln Park RFC 76 (Half-time: 7-45)

There are days when a rugby team simply has the run of the sun, and this was one of them. Under a cloudless Chicago sky, with the kind of heat that saps a lesser side by the hour mark, Lincoln Park RFC instead seemed to feed off it, running in eleven tries and putting seventy-six points on a Riot outfit who, in fairness, competed with real heart but could not live with the visitors' pace of thought or foot.

The scoreline will draw the eye, and rightly so, but the manner of it told the fuller story. This was not a case of one dominant unit doing the damage while the rest coasted. It was a collective performance, forwards laying a platform that rarely creaked and backs finishing with a ruthlessness that, by the closing quarter, had the look of a training exercise rather than a contest.

Laux leads the way

If one man's name will linger longest in the retelling, it is Jake Laux's. His hat-trick was built less on individual brilliance in isolation than on an instinct for exactly where the game was breaking down field, and getting there first. Time and again it was Laux arriving as first support to a half-break, picking cleanly and driving through the tiring shoulders of Riot defenders who simply had no second effort left to give. His second was the pick of the three, and it came from the unlikeliest of starts — straight from the restart. Dave Lepp gathered the kickoff and, rather than settle for the easy carry, found Laux in space with a pass that sliced fifty yards clean through the Riot line. There was no catching him after that.

Jahner's boot and a rock-solid lineout

Behind the pack, Jahner's afternoon will please the coaching staff as much as any of the tries. His lineout ball was a platform in itself — clean, reliable possession that let Lincoln Park play with the tempo they wanted rather than the tempo Riot would have preferred to impose. With the boot he was similarly excellent, missing only one conversion all day, and his lone blemish came on a penalty attempt from inside his own half — hardly a fair test of a kicking game that otherwise barely faltered.

Thomas turns provider as well as finisher

Out wide, Thomas gave Riot's defence problems it never quite solved. Two tries of his own came from a predatory reading of loose ball and disorganised defensive lines, the mark of a winger who scents opportunity before it has fully arrived. But his most telling contribution may have been the one that did not end in his own try — a searing break that ate up half the field and drew the last defender, allowing Finnegan support underneath. Finnegan was on hand to finish, following Thomas's burst the length of the pitch and forcing his way over from close range — a try that owed everything to the winger's vision but was finished off with real purpose, symptomatic of an afternoon in which Riot's line was under almost constant siege.

Robinson impresses at hooker

Deputising at hooker, Robinson put in the sort of shift that will not have gone unnoticed. His throwing was accurate for the most part, no small thing in the heat, and he added two tries from close range to boot. The first arrived off the back of a driving Lincoln Park maul, Robinson peeling away at just the right moment to finish what the pack had started — a try built entirely in the tight exchanges rather than the wide ones, and a reminder that this was a victory constructed as much up front as out back.

Set-piece dominance and Chrisos's boot

Indeed, it was the set-piece stability that underpinned everything else. All afternoon the Lincoln Park scrum and lineout gave the backline quick, front-foot ball, and that platform rarely wavered even as the temperature climbed. Chrisos was central to turning defence into attack, his tactical kicking repeatedly relieving pressure whenever Riot did manage to string phases together, pinning them back and forcing them to play from deep — exactly where Lincoln Park wanted them.

Bench adds to the tally

Nor did the introduction of fresh legs slow the visitors down. If anything, the bench arrived with extra urgency, adding impetus in the closing stages when a lesser side might have eased off with the scoreboard already emphatic. Lincoln Park simply never let up, and Riot were given no respite in which to find a foothold.

Riot's 12 stands almost alone

For the home side, credit is due chiefly to their number 12, who was virtually a one-man rearguard. His three tries were the sum total of a genuine attacking threat, but it was in defence that he caught the eye most — a series of last-ditch cover tackles that, on another day, might have been remembered as a man single-handedly keeping the score respectable. As it was, even he could not stem the tide alone, and Riot's afternoon became one of admirable resistance rather than any real prospect of an upset.

The verdict

Seventy-six points, eleven tries, and barely a phase of the second half in doubt — this was as complete a start to the season as Lincoln Park could have hoped for. Forwards front-footed, backs clinical, and a bench that refused to let standards drop: on this evidence, sides across the league will have taken note.

LPRFC welcomes Michael Baska to club

by thepom02 | Aug 19, 2026 | Coaches, Featured, News, Rugby

Michael Baska joins LPRFC coaching staff

LPRFC is thrilled to announce a major addition to our leadership team for the upcoming season: Michael Baska is officially joining the Lincoln Park Rugby Football Club coaching staff.

Michael brings an extraordinary pedigree to our program. As a USA Eagle and a veteran of Major League Rugby, he has competed at the highest levels of the game. His experience, and professional mindset will be invaluable as we continue to elevate our standards as a club.

“Bringing a player and coach of Michael’s caliber into our group is a huge milestone for Lincoln Park. His experience with the Eagles and in the MLR will directly benefit our players’ development and push our squad to new heights.”
— Paul Wilson, LPRFC President

Please join us in giving Michael a warm welcome to the pitch at our upcoming training sessions on Monday and Thursday nights at Chase Park!

The Ring Was Always Going to Be the Main Event — But Park Put on a Show Worth Watching First

by thepom02 | May 11, 2026 | Columnists, Featured, Match Reports, News, Rugby

Lincoln Park 48 Silverbacks 19

There was something deliciously appropriate about a Lincoln Park performance this ferocious being merely the undercard. By the time the final whistle brought proceedings to a premature close — both sides apparently needed to be somewhere — Park had already said everything they needed to say, and they had said it loudly. Their teammate Dave Lepp was preparing to walk into a cage that evening and earn a unanimous judges' decision with his fists. His colleagues, it seems, were inspired by the spirit of the thing.

Because this was Lincoln Park with their knuckles up. Aggressive, purposeful, relentless through the phases — and yet, crucially, not brainless. The combination of raw carrying power and genuine structural intelligence was rarer than it sounds, and for long stretches of this contest it was quite irresistible.

The Silverbacks deserve a footnote of credit for their nerve. They crossed early in each half, which takes a certain bloody-mindedness, and they were not short of it. But they were swimming against a tide that grew stronger with every passing minute.

Between those moments of Silverbacks defiance, the scoring belonged entirely to one side. Quinn, operating with the unhurried authority of a man who has done this before, helped himself to two tries from the left wing — both finished with a composure that belied the pressure around him. Hudson spotted the opportunity where others might have clung to the ball and launched the tap-and-go that carved the defence open. And then there was Melody — a man who has scored easier tries only in his sleep — who somehow found himself placing the ball down from a distance measurable in inches rather than yards, and had the good sense not to overthink it.

The forwards carried with menace. The backs ran on to the ball at genuine pace. Would-be tacklers found themselves arriving a fraction too late and leaving a fraction too shaken. The gain line, that great arbiter of rugby contests, was consistently breached and consistently exploited.

Individual excellence threaded through the collective effort like a bright seam. Panzica, who has had company in the lineout struggles of recent weeks, threw with accuracy and conviction, and the set-piece was the better for it. Cooley ran as if he had a personal grievance to settle with every defensive line, scoring himself and unlocking teammates with equal enthusiasm. And Laux and Bricteux? They committed grand larceny at the breakdown with such brazen regularity that one wonders if the Silverbacks have lodged a formal complaint with local law enforcement.

It was a pity the game ended when it did. Not because the result was in doubt — it emphatically was not — but because this was a Lincoln Park performance worth watching to its natural conclusion. There were passages here that deserved a full audience and a full eighty minutes.

Lepp won his fight that night. Unanimously. His teammates had already made the point that victory, when Lincoln Park are operating at this level, can be just as emphatic.

If they carry this with them, the weeks ahead look considerably brighter.

Park pay the price for a slow mind and a slower start

by thepom02 | May 11, 2026 | Columnists, Featured, Match Reports, News, Rugby

LPRFC 19 Chicago North Side 33

There are defeats and then there are self-portraits, and what Lincoln Park produced here was something uncomfortably close to the latter. Against a NorthSide Chicago side who knew exactly what they were about from the first whistle, Park looked like a team still warming up when the real work had long since begun.

The opening quarter told the story with brutal economy. NorthSide needed no invitation — they simply helped themselves to one, courtesy of an interception as Park attempted to move the ball wide after a high kick. It was the sort of error that happens when minds are elsewhere, and on this evidence, several of Park's were still in the changing room.

"Park looked like a team still warming up when the real work had long since begun."

Credit where it was due: Loomis hauled Lincoln Park back level with a try that had real quality about it — a galloping, long-limbed burst through the midfield that suggested, briefly, a different match might be in the offing. It was not. Two turnovers in quick succession handed NorthSide the initiative back, and their winger proved a menace of the most irritating kind — cutting inside off his wing with the sureness of a man who had done it a hundred times, and would do it again, which he duly did. Two tries from the same source, the same route, the same outcome: 24-7 and the match, to all intents and purposes, already decided.

Geiser's sharp-witted tap penalty on the stroke of half-time reduced the arrears and at least gave Lincoln Park something to build on during the interval conversation. Whether that conversation was frank enough is another matter entirely.

The second half was, at least, a more honest affair — more competitive in spirit if not in arithmetic. Park's try came from Mazy off the bench, a welcome injection of urgency from a substitute who carried more purpose than much of what preceded him. NorthSide added one more of their own to settle the matter beyond doubt, and settled it they did.

The brightest spark throughout, and it should be said loudly, was Schwartz. His running lines through the centres were genuinely clever — not just carrying hard but reading the defence and finding angles that the midfield around him was not always quick enough to exploit. He deserved better support. In the forwards, Tommy Lyons was characteristically industrious at the tackle, and Loomis — scorer and busy presence — gave Lincoln Park some forward momentum in a match where the pack was too often second to the breakdown.

After the quality Park had shown earlier in the campaign, this was a deflating afternoon — not without moments, but profoundly lacking the intensity that had made them worth watching. The table does not forgive slow starts, and neither should the players looking at themselves in the mirror this week.

Bricteux’s brilliance and a first-half carnival light up Lincoln Park

by thepom02 | Apr 20, 2026 | Columnists, Featured, Match Reports, News, Rugby

Lincoln Park 59 · East Side Banshees 43

There are afternoons in club rugby when everything coheres — when the forward grunt meets the backline verve and something genuinely beautiful emerges. Lincoln Park served up one such half on Saturday, and those who witnessed it will be talking about it for some time yet.

Forty-two points in the first half. Let that settle for a moment. Against a Banshees side with enough spirit to make the second period genuinely uncomfortable, Park played rugby of a quality that, frankly, has been waiting to arrive. It arrived in some style.

The architect of much of the devastation was one Bricteux, a backrow with a distinctly Gallic approach to the game — a joie de vivre that a certain Toulouse number eight might recognise, and a taste for the tryline that border on the compulsive. A hat-trick of tries from the loose forward position is not to be sniffed at in any company; at club level, it amounts to a statement of intent. One should note, however, that Bricteux's enthusiasm for the contest did not confine itself to the scoring end. At the breakdown he was, at times, the sort of nuisance that opposing nines have nightmares about. A talent, then, but one that will need channelling.

The old distinction between forwards and backs has always been somewhat reductive, but here it held a pleasant truth. The forwards provided the ingredients — relentlessly, intelligently — and the backs decorated the cake. Chrisos opened the scoring after hooker Medero demonstrated that the modern front-row operator is no longer content merely to scrummage and be thanked for it. The hooker's break to set up the first score was a reminder of a versatility that has been growing by the week; his second-half contribution included a 60-metre effort — his second such score of the season — and a sharp finish to a cutout pass from Nara that showed real footballing awareness. Not bad for a man whose primary obligation remains to point in the right direction at the set-piece.

Geiser's try was everything one hopes for from a prop when he finds himself in the vicinity of the whitewash — low, direct, purposeful, and entirely without apology. A short dive that would have made a seasoned loosehead proud. Meanwhile Hudson, operating from the base of the scrum with the quiet menace of a man who has done this before, helped himself to two tries through the kind of sniping runs that only reveal themselves on the second watching of a video. Blink and you will miss them; Hudson evidently does not blink.

Laux was quick to exploit the quick tap wherever the referee allowed it, putting Park on the front foot with a decisiveness that set the tempo early. In the second row, DRiscoll was an engine of perpetual motion — a player who will look for the offload first, which is commendable, but who is equally unafraid to become the obstacle rather than the architect. He gave Park consistent go-forward when the occasion demanded something more direct. And somewhere in the unglamorous machinery of it all was Debacker, doing the dark arts that the scoresheets never record and the highlights packages never show. Rugby people know the type; they are the first names the coaches thank and the last the reporters mention. Consider this a correction.

Finnegan, standing over the kicking tee with something approaching the clinical authority of a Ramos at his best, converted six from six despite a wind that made no pretence of co-operation. The points column appreciated the effort enormously.

One of the finest halves of rugby this club has produced in a long while.

The Banshees, to their credit, refused to accept the narrative that had been written for them. Minnesota is not a place that produces sportspeople prone to lying down, and their second-half fight-back — clawing back the margin from thirty points to an eventual sixteen — was a reminder that 102-point aggregates do not always tell straightforward stories. At the sixty-minute mark Park appeared comfortable, almost imperious. Then the defensive frailties, always lurking beneath the surface in the early weeks of a season, reasserted themselves. The back door, on too many occasions, was left ajar.

This is the aspect that will exercise the coaching staff in the days ahead, and rightly so. Offensive cohesion of this quality — willing support runners, sharp lines, a shared instinct for when to move and when to commit — is a fragile thing if it is not backed by defensive resolve. Winning by sixteen when leading by thirty is not a disaster; it is, however, a conversation that needs to be had.

But let us not end on a caveat when the headline deserves its moment. Lincoln Park, in that first half, were magnificent. When they play like that, there are not many sides in this league equipped to live with them.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »