Men’s rugby earns first win against Ball State
The Flashes finally got one in the win column on Saturday, after turning first-half momentum into a second-half scoring outburst against Ball State.
“First half we were adjusting, second half we came together,” said team president Keegan Gillilan. “Our new centers finally kind of found their ground, and the rest (of the team) just kind of came together. It’s hard to explain, you know? We finally got to playing rugby as opposed to being confused.”
The team coming together resulted in the men’s first victory of the season (1-3), 46-14, over the Cardinals of Ball State.
The game was in favor of the Cardinals after the first half, 14-12, but the Flashes figured out something that they knew they could gain an advantage on in the second.
“Weak tackling and bad positioning on the field,” Gillilan said about the Cardinals’ fundamental flaws during the game. “When they were in the right spots they could not wrap us up, they couldn’t tackle, and the other thing was we just had so much support downfield that even when they could tackle us, we were popping it off and it was just (like) a train.”
Junior assistant coach and fly half Ian Brooks said the team seemed lazy in the first half, but rallied together and ran with its momentum that it gained in the first.
“We got the ball out wide with support and just played the overload (a bunch of their guys against a few on the other team),” Brooks said. “It was a good game and a lot of guys stepped up and took it to them for 80 minutes.”
Kyle Samec is a sports reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].