Ruggers dominate at home

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Photo By Justin Yost

Wayne State Rugby shows the University of South Dakota why the Wildcats’ home field is known as “The House of Pain.”

Courtney Upah, Staff Writer

The Wildcats’ home field, “The House of Pain in Wayne,” certainly lived up to its name this weekend as Wayne State College dominated their competition.

The rugby women not only won their game remaining undefeated, but completely owned the field, beating the University of South Dakota 112-0.

“I feel like, being a rookie, the A-side game against USD went pretty well. The veterans got the opportunity to run their new plays which helped them score to get the victory 112-0,” new rugby player Nita Valdez said.

In the first half of the game, the women played with their conve­nient style, using offense with a strong tight running game in the center of the field. Using this style opened up the long side of the field for touchdown runs. In the second half, the team experimented with a new split back offense with running pods on the far right and left of the field. The backline used its speed to its advantage by running wide with the ball and outrunning the defense.

Jasmine Kovacs did particularly well when she had a kickoff return and several long touchdown runs to lead the offense.

The Wayne State freshmen wom­en’s team also played this weekend against Augustana, winning 45-7.

“The rookie game against Au­gustana showed how us rookies are improving since we managed to win 45-7,” Valdez said.

The freshmen team backline start­ed playing well right out the gate. The scrum started unorganized, but midway through they really got it together.

The men’s rugby team also took the field winning 61-0 against USD. Overall this made for a great week­end for WSC.

The freshmen men’s team also played against Western Iowa Tech, winning 63-0.

“Many of these freshmen will be put on the A-side roster due to their good performance,” rugby coach Darrin Barner said.

The freshmen men had a clean sweep of the field, so they soon will be playing with varsity members.

Despite this victory, the rug­by teams are already looking ahead to next week’s games. The women will be in Ames against Iowa State. The men, how­ever, will be going up against the University of Nebraska again. The last time that the WSC men faced off against the University of Nebraska they only won by two points, so these two teams should be closely matched. To add even more to the excitement, at least six of the men’s starters will be from the freshman team, which should make for a good match.