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USA Posts Comfortable Win Over Chile
(Salt Lake City, Utah) 10 August 2002 -- Two first-half tries from David Fee propelled the United States to a 35-22 win over Chile in a Rugby World Cup qualifying match today. In a hard-hitting contest, the USA jumped to a 25-3 halftime lead and were never in danger of losing the first-ever rugby international between the American hemisphere countries, played before 2,075 fans on a 75-degree summer afternoon. Local star Kimball Kjar and Philip Eloff added tries for the USA, while flyhalf Mike Hercus added 15 points goalkicking,. Nicolas Damm, Bernardo Garcia, and captain Alfonso Escobar scored the visitors? tries, the latter two in the game?s dying stages. With the win, the USA improved its World Cup qualifying tournament record to 1-2 while Chile fell to 1-1. In other World Cup qualifying action today, Canada downed Uruguay 51-16 in Edmonton to move its record to 3-0. Uruguay dropped to 0-2. Fee, in just his third match for the USA, opened the scoring at 15 minutes. Hard running by forwards Dan Dorsey and Phillippe Farner set up the winger?s first international try. Hercus converted to give the hosts a 7-0 lead. Following two penalty goals by Hercus and one from Chilean flyhalf Cristian Gonzalez, Fee?s second try broke the match open at 36 minutes. Mose Timoteo?s strong counterattack run opened up the Chilean defense for Fee to scamper 40 yards down the right sideline. One minute before halftime, Utah native Kjar darted from the base on a ruck to run 40 yards untouched. Hercus? conversion made the count 25-3. Chile?s Damm scored a converted try 7 minutes after halftime to bring the visitors to within 15 points, but Hercus? third penalty goal and Eloff?s converted try at 59 minutes put the game out of reach at 35-10. With several American starters on the bench resting for Thursday?s match with Uruguay in San Francisco, Chile?s forward power came to fore in tries by Garcia and Escobar. "Today was a good victory. It?s great to see young guys like Kimball [Kjar] and David Fee taking their chances and scoring tries. But now we have to immediately focus on Uruguay," USA captain Dave Hodges said after the match. In the afternoon?s warmup match, Utah Collegiate All-Stars downed their rivals from Texas 39-10. Final: United States 35 Chile 22 (halftime: United States 25-3) United States: Tries: Fee (2), Kjar, Eloff Conversions Hercus (3) Penalty goals: Hercus (3) Chile: Tries: Damm, Garcia, Escobar Conversions: Gonzalez, Berti Penalty goals: Gonzalez Referee: Andrew Cole (Australia) Crowd: 2,075 United States: Mose Timoteo; David Fee, Jason Keyter (Link Wilfley), Philip Eloff, Jone Naqica; Mike Hercus, Kimball Kjar; Mike MacDonald (Andy McGarry), Kirk Khasigian, Dan Dorsey (John Tarpoff), Alec Parker, Philippe Farner, Conrad Hodgson (Chris Miller), Kort Schubert, Dave Hodges (captain) (Shaun Paga). Chile: Bernardo Garcia; Sebastian Pizarro, Nicolas Damm, Sebastian Pinto, Rodrigo Coda; Cristian Gonzalez (Cristobal Berti), Nicolas Arancibia; Rodrigo Lacassie, Jorge Pollack, Sebastian Gajardo, Sergio Valdes, Alfonso Escobar (captain), Sebastian Garcia, Edmundo Olfos, Cristian Manzur.
Source: USA-Eagles.com
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