On April 27, four teams gathered at Orchard Park High School outside Buffalo, N.Y., for the most recent installment of what the teams now call “The Rust Belt Cup.” Orchard Park hosted Moon Area (Pa.), Highland (Ohio) and Rockford (Mich.) for a spirited round robin which featured great talent, competition and sportsmanship.
The first assembly of these teams happened in 2018, when Moon Area invited Orchard Park to visit as both teams prepared for 15s single-school nationals in Tennessee. The teams would later face each other at that competition. Coaches Rocky Nurss (Moon Area) and Lisa Huff Henrich (Orchard Park) enjoyed each other’s quirky personalities and similar approaches to coaching rugby, and found that their teams were fairly evenly matched at the time and agreed to continue to challenge each other each spring.
In 2022, Orchard Park faced Highland at single-school nationals and these teams also enjoyed great competition and great rapport following the match. Orchard Park coach Glenn Nenoff connected with Highland coach Dave Sambor to schedule future contests, and the “Rust Belt Cup” was born.
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In 2023 the teams met in Moon Area followed by a 2024 assembly at Highland. In 2025, it was Orchard Park’s turn to host. When Rockford coach Andy Dauser reached out to coach Henrich about competitive opportunities, the Rockford team was invited to join the assembly.
“These Midwestern squads embrace the opportunity to enjoy this organic competition that is centered around quality competition, but also similar values, personalities and communities,” Huff Henrich explained the value of the tournament. “Girls from the different teams have played together for the Midwest Thunderbirds and Atlantis 7s teams. In addition, several athletes look forward to playing college rugby together and assembled for group photos featuring these common threads.”
Poor Western New York weather and limited rosters in the Buffalo region meant this was the first time Orchard Park had the opportunity to take the pitch this spring. Huff Henrich was pleased with the team’s execution of skills and team structure and was particularly delighted with the performance of a few rookies who played in their first matches, most notably junior second row Brooklyn Gross and junior Kathryn Lapadat.
“It was a great event,” Nurss enthused. “It was great to test ourselves against Rockford and Orchard Park.”
Moon Area senior Ava Steed stood out, scoring three tries in those two matches. She’s heading to DI NCAA varsity Sacred Heart University. Junior Maria Depner also scored two tries and also was very good in the poach. Junior Ellie Nurss went 6-for-6 off the tee.
“Moon Area had a very structured attack and disciplined defense, and were very strong in the tackle,” Rockford coach Andy Dauser explained. Both teams traded scores but we were unable to make our conversions.”
The Tigers won that match 14-10. Rockford traveled with 17 players and regrouped for Ohio’s Highland.
“They use their forwards to draw in and were able to get it to their wing for a try in the first half,” Dauser reviewed the big, strong team. “Our attack was good and we were able to move the ball, while breaking the game line several times. We ended up winning 20-7.”
Rockford and Orchard Park then combined for a JV match against Moon Area, putting some younger players on the pitch for quality game time.
“All in all, it was a great trip with great competition at a great facility and a wonderful social,” Huff Henrich closed.
“We had a great trip,” Dauser added. “We even visited Niagara Falls and the Anchor Ball, which is famous for their Buffalo wings.”