The Eastern rugby team had nine of its 15 players debut in the sport, as they played their first game on Saturday against the Wisconsin All-Stars in Madison, Wis., losing 64-5.

Newcomers Jessica Maricich and Breanna Young led the Panthers in tackles with 11 and eight, respectively. Eastern head coach Frank Graziano said he was very pleased with the way the rest of the newcomers played despite the outcome.

“They were probably forced to make too many tackles during the course of the game, but that is very encouraging,” he said. “As they begin to ease into the contact of what the game really is when you are playing an opponent that is just a personal battle that they are going to have to go through.”

Young scored the Panthers’ lone try late in the second half. Hannah Vieth missed her only conversion attempt as well.

The Panthers struggled on defense in their first game, allowing 32 points in each half of play on Saturday. Graziano said they were overmatched from the start.

“They are a good team,” he said. “They are an all-star team. They have been together all summer long and have traveled overseas to play, so we were at a disadvantage.”

Graziano added the Panthers are going to work on defense all week, because of the amount of points given up.

Last year, Eastern played the Wisconsin All-Stars on Sept.7, when the Panthers lost 66-7.

Graziano said that the Panthers did not tackle very well and the positional defense was not very good, as they trailed 32-0 at halftime.

“That unfortunately allowed them too much running room,” he said. “If you are not set up, or not tackling very well, we made them look a lot better than they really are.”

Despite only scoring once and the defense struggling, Graziano expected the team to get a lot better and continue to grow each day.

“The future is very bright,” he said. “We are just going to struggle with a little bit of growing pains. I think the learning curve will be very quickly, because I think they have a benchmark and they actually have a film. We are going to sit down almost every day and watch bits and pieces of the film.”

The Panthers next game will be at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, against Lindenwood in St. Charles, Mo.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]