The Eagle Impact Rugby Academy U17s/U18s held off the Ontario U18s for a 24-19 win at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, on Thursday.

Max Palmer, Sam Fisher, Adam Zareb, and Lewis Gray all scored tries for EIRA.

The game began with Ontario putting a good deal of pressure on EIRA from the opening kickoff. EIRA struggled to execute an effective exit plan and was too sideways in its attack, which allowed Ontario to maintain pressure and, eventually, score.

That try seemed to spark the EIRA players, and they responded quickly with a try. There was a constant physical battle between the two sides to win the gainline, and both teams seemed to relish the contact. Eventually, space began to open up for the Americans, and they scored a series of tries before halftime to lead 24-7. The first 20 minutes of the second half saw a number of changes made on both teams, which seemed to disrupt the continuity of EIRA's play.  EIRA also received a yellow card for a high tackle, and Ontario regained the momentum to score two tries and cut the visitors' lead to 24-19. 

In a stop-start final quarter, Cian Messner kicked two conversions to help EIRA to the win.

"We made a number of improvements in our performance today," EIRA coach Brendan Keane said. "Most importantly, our defensive line speed was good, allowing us to pressurize them and force errors, and we got good go forward from our boys up front. Our scrum was strong, and we had success turning them around with our kicking game. We had some problems in the contact area that we will look to clean up for Saturday's game."

Eagle Impact Rugby Academy Lineup

1. Trey Reed
2. Eshaun Kaul
3. Doug Mitchell
4. Matt Gelhaus
5. Charlie Overton
6. Liam Andersen
7. Tyler Heer
8. Sam Fisher
9. Max Clark
10. Aidan Gallagher
11. Ultan Horrigan
12. Adam Taylor
13. Matt Start (C)
14. Lewis Gray
15. Cian Messner

Reserves:
Tomas Alsenas
Jared Cordova
Andrei Golding
George Heard
Zach Hylton
Hugo Meyjonade 
Francisco Morano-Peccoud
Max Palmer
Travis Preston
Braden Ramsey
Tarshawn Reed
Iason Terezis
Chad Tiernan
Adam Zareb