The ladies took the field first with a 4:30 kick off against Angelo State University (ASU), but we began the afternoon with a small hitch in our giddy up. It seems the ladies didn't have enough players to compete in their home opener, so they had to borrow play the game. And once they borrowed players, that became a played forfeit in the eyes of the league.
The ladies under the leadership of my Assistant Coach Jonathan Holmes carefully constructed a team of ladies ready to take the field. The ladies led by Kayla Kilbury took the field, they played very well considering this was their very first game of their season.
Some of the girls that played are Emma Barrington, Dustin Harris, Zhiru (Claire) Lin, Kalena Mauga, Kaitlyn Stacey and Shaira Rahman.
The men took the field against Letourneau University (LTU), in the past we have played well against LTU, but have come up short in the final outcome. This year is different, new players, new roles and when the kick off came, it was all UT Dallas.
The Line up:
1. Yahve, 2. Jarvis, 3. Joey, 4. Calvin, 5. Aly, 6. Andrew M., 7. Daniel E., 8. Caleb, 9. Lewis, 10. Andrew W., 11. Talhah, 12. Edmund, 13. Michael, 14. Jackson, 15. Octavio
Reserves: 16. Travis, 17. Alex Willis, 20. Ola, 22. Brandon H., 23. Grafton
The first half was tough, LTU was bigger and trying to impose their height and weight on the slightly smaller UTD rugby players. But it was the Comet to score first and also scoring his first Try of the game, it was a thing of beauty, from a Penalty, Lewis took a quick tap and exploited a surprised LTU and by the time he was about to be tackled, Daniel was there in support and took the pass from Lewis. Daniel then marched down the field and as he was about to be tackled, he off loaded to Jackson who was burning down the touchline waiting for this golden opportunity and the ball came to him and off he went into goal, then turning toward the goal posts he ran. This not only scored his first try, but gave Lewis a better angle to make the conversion. This try also opened the flood gates of points scored by UTD. The Comet scored 4 trys and made some conversions and a Penalty kick for 29 first half points and limited LTU to none.
The second half was pretty much like the first half, except a few changes to the line up, some of the reserves Grafton came in for Yahve at the beginning of the second half. Brandon, Alex and Travis came in with about 20 minutes left in the game for Joey, Aly and Daniel. While the match was fast and furious going both ways up and down the pitch. The second half was a good one for scoring, as UTD managed to put 5 Trys on the board and LTU was able to put 2 Trys also on the board.
Scoring for UT Dallas was: Jackson Wernli, Calvin Lones, Andrew Whiteis (2), Daniel Eljuri (3), Edmund Miller (2), Lewis converted 5 Trys, and kicked 1 Penalty kick.
The final score was UT Dallas 56, Letourneau 12, it was a good game and a good win against a team that is a lot better than this score finished. I expect to see this club in the playoffs and for the game to be a much different game.
This coming weekend, the girls will be possibly heading to Houston for a 7's tournament and the guys will be playing a friendly match against UNT at UT Dallas. This will be a late evening kick off, more info will be coming as I get more details regarding that weekend.