Davenport men's rugby headed to Columbus, Ohio for a neutral ground cross conference clash with #8 ranked Penn State from the Rugby East Conference on Saturday, October 19. The team was looking forward to a tough match against a Top 10 rugby program. DU came prepared for a physical match and set up a handy lead after three early tries to
Jacob Gent, Chipo Mupeso and Mat De Villers.
The Panthers were up 19 - 0 after 20 minutes and were well in control of the match. The forwards set a great platform for the classy Davenport backs to show their skill set. A penalty conversion from De Villers 12 minutes out from the break extended the lead to 22 - 0. The forwards decided to get in on the scoring action with
Austin Hessling and Jaymie Hilton Jones, both having strong games. They picked up tries before the end of the first half for a score of 34 - 0 to Davenport.
Penn State was able to find some energy near the end of the half and scored in the final moments to bring the score to 34 - 5. Davenport started the second half much like the first. The team brought a lot of energy and excitement to their play and were rewarded with tries to
Josh McAdam and Mupeso (his second for the day) giving them a commanding lead of 44 - 5. Penn State seemed to find a spark after some poor discipline from Davenport and managed to hit back with two quick tries in the last 10 minutes of the game, but it was Davenport that would have the final say after Dom Lamancusa kicked a loose ball ahead to score with less than a minute on the clock. De Villers kicked 3-of-8 conversions for the match.
