HOUSTON, Texas - Davenport Men's Rugby traveled to Houston to compete in the CRAA National Tournament for 7's. Today, May 6th was the first day of the two-day tournament where the men's team was placed in Pool 3 with Florida, Santa Clara, and Arizona. Because of the three wins, the men's team got to move onto Central Washington later in the day.

The first game of the tournament was versus Florida, and the boys started with great pressure on defense and ability to move the ball quickly, which made it easy for them to score three tries in the first half. Two were made by Sam Evans and the last made by Ethan Howard. In the beginning of the second half they continued to play their game and scored another try made by Sean Nolan for a score of 20-0. Two more tries from Colin Turner left the Panthers with their first win of the day with final score being 30-0.

Second game of the day was against Santa Clara in their pool play. Davenport started the game with their continuous solid defensive line moving efficiently. Santa Clara was a great opponent, with their similar game play style, allowing them to score the first try of the match. Offensively, Davenport was able to move the ball quickly, bringing themselves in the lead with a 7-5 score. Even with a yellow card, Davenport was able to carry their score through the first half. The second half was a constant fight with possession, and one red card was awarded, but Davenport was able to pull through with the winning score of 14-12.

Game three started off as a tough match against Arizona. The first minute of the game a try was scored. Saul Pitout scored a try right around the four-minute mark with the help of Sean Nolan making the conversion – tying up the score to 7-7. Next up for the tries was Sam Evans to finish off the first half. The second half was where Davenport really set themselves apart from the Wildcats, allowing for a pretty large score gap. Tries this half were from Sean Nolan and Luther (Xijon) Deacon resulting in the final score of 24-7.

Game four was the first game out of pool play for this bracket, and entering into finals. In the very first minute of the game they used insane offensive lines to result in a try from Nolan with a pass off from Pitout. There were four whole minutes between Davenport's try and Central Washington's, meaning that Davenport's defense was truly impeccable. Some of the main players stepping up in this game with both offensive plays and defensive structures were Alex Null, Pitout, and Deacon.The final score was 17-12 and with the hard work this team put in, it will lead them to finals on May 7th.

Overall Scores for Day 1:

Game 1: Davenport v. Florida University (30-0) Win
Game 2: Davenport v. Santa Clara University  (14-12) Win
Game 3: Davenport v. Arizona University  (24-7) Win
Game 4: Davenport v. Central Washington (17-12) Win

The Davenport Men's Rugby team will complete their 7's season on Sunday, May 7th with their match versus Life University at noon local Houston time.