After a convincing 73–14 victory over the Legacy Academy in the fall opener, the Panther men's rugby coaching staff was happy to observe that the team was tracking well in their goal to improve the offensive attack from the dreaded Covid-19 riddled spring season.
“It was a great barometer to see where we are in our defensive and offensive structure. While the score line may reflect a certain level of dominance we certainly have a ton of room to improve in both our offense and defense,” said head coach Dustin Steedman.
Prior to last weekend’s meeting, Davenport’s record versus Notre Dame College was 1-1-3, with a tie in the 2019-2020 season and the last win coming in 2015. Fast forward to Saturday when Davenport University faced off against the Falcons. The result this time would be a dominant win for the Panthers. With a bit of excitement and tension in the air, Sean Nolan started the game kicking off to the opposition. The kick was high and deep into the opposition’s territory where the tone for the day was set by Colin Turner making a dominant tackle in the fifteen-meter channel.
While the rest of the defense arrived to put pressure on NDC, they were forced return a kick to DU. The ball did not find the touchline but found Alex Null who immediately passed to fullback Matthew DeVilliers. Matt skillfully evaded the NDC defenders and was able to make a pass to Ethan (Moose) Howard, who was able to put the first score on the board in 31 seconds of the game. Nolan also contributed with a kick from corner to add two additional points making the score 7-0. There wouldn’t be much Notre Dame College could do from this point on. The defense was suffocating from the interior not allowing Notre Dame to move the ball outside.
“Anytime you can set a tone in a game from the first tackle that ultimately results in a transition to score, you put your opposition under extreme pressure,“ said Steedman.
It would only be six more minutes before the ball would find DeVilliers hands once again except this time he was able to beat the defense on the edge and scurry in for the score. Nolan once again added two more points with his reliable foot making the score 14–0. The defense continued to look impressive until the 11:36 mark when DU made an error allowing a short-side strike from a NDC flanker making the score, 14-5. As the game took shape and leveled off a bit, Davenport's defense would reset and become even more unrelenting. Their attack seemed to slow a bit until the 26:40 and 31:29 marks where Nolan converted two penalty conversions for six points making the score, 20-5. As the day continued Davenport would see the try zone four more times from Christiaan VanDerWesthuizen , DeVilliers , Kaden Barksdale, and Turner to make the final score, 42-12. Davenport continues its season push in a highly-anticipated game on Oct. 9 at Iowa Central.
