Rugby Defeats Lindenwood, 51-16
JONESBORO — Arkansas State University’s rugby team dominated Lindenwood-Belleville, 51-16, in college rugby Saturday afternoon. The victory ups the Red Wolves’ record to 2-0 on the fall season.
Lindenwood got on the scoreboard early with a penalty kick to go up, 3-0, with 34 minutes remaining in the first half. Then, A-State answered three minutes later with its own penalty kick to knot the score, 3-3. The Red Wolves were able to take the lead when Brock Roper applied pressure at the scrum, causing a turnover. Blace Walser recovered and scores on the try to put Arkansas State ahead, 8-3.
With 15 minutes remaining in the half, Preston Weigel scored in the corner to add to A-State’s lead, 13-3. Ruan Knuppel was able to recover his own kick and added another score and the conversion to put A-State to a 20-3 lead.
A penalty kick by LU followed after Red Wolf Pedro Alvarez scored on a try, making the score, 25-6, at the half.
A try by Kuda Makuvire from the corner boosted A-State’s point total to 30-9 with 16 minutes left in match. A successful try by Lindenwood narrowed the gap to, 30-16, to give LU its final points of the day.
Then Arkansas State closed out the final eight minutes with another successful try by Alvarez, and a successful conversion by Dylan Boast, to widen the score, 37-16. Walser got in for his second try with a conversion by Boast. Neil Maestri closed out the day with a try and kicked his own conversion to end play with a final 51-16 final score for A-State.
Head coach Shaun Potgieter called Walser, “the man of the match,” citing his two tries, recovery of four turnovers and displaying an “outstanding performance in general play around the pitch.”
Arkansas State will be idle next week and return to play Friday, Oct. 7, hosting LSU at Curt Huckaby Field. Game time is 3 p.m.
