BETHANY, Okla.—Southern Nazarene Men's Rugby kicked off the 2022 fall season with an impressive 53-23 win over Missouri S&T at the SNU Rugby Pitch on Saturday afternoon.
The first half was extremely tight. Missouri S&T was keeping it uncomfortably close for the Crimson Storm as SNU held just a slight 20-15 lead at the half. MS&T tied it up almost immediately to begin the 2nd half but the SNU boys responded by setting a physical tone for the rest of the 2nd half and began to physically impose their will on their opponent and pulled away nicely over the final 30 minutes.
The Storm wore down Missouri S&T the entire second half and outscored them 33-8 over the final 40 minutes. SNU showed their strength in the scrums, winning 4 of 5 attacking scrums and 7 of 11 defending scrums.
Tre Griffin and Dayton Bradford were the leading point-scorers for the Storm as each scored 3 tries in the match. Xander Burleigh scored two tries, and Ethan Thomason added one, as well.
Josh Robertson scored 8 points in the match as he went 4-of-8 on conversion attempts.
Following the match, Head Coach Aric Gilliland said:
"Our half-backs, Tré Griffin and Creed Hicken, did a really nice job of maintaining consistency. They maintained a nice balance of using the forwards' strength and backs' speed and skills to attack all areas of the pitch. Our forwards dominated the set pieces. Our backs used the kicking game at valuable times. We have a lot of improvement to make but the boys have given themselves a nice platform upon which they can build."
SNU returns to the pitch this Saturday as they travel to Siloam Springs, Arkansas for a road match with John Brown. The match is set to begin at 11:00 a.m. SNU will be back at home on Sept. 24th to host Pittsburg State at 1:00 p.m.
