St. Bonaventure Men's Rugby Loses After Navy Second Half Surge

The 18th D1A Rugby ranked St. Bonaventure Men’s Rugby Club hosted the 5th ranked USNA Men’s Rugby Club on September 7 in a pre-season meeting between top D1A clubs at the Marra Athletic Complex. The Bonnies took a 17-8 advantage into the break with Navy coming back to win 34-24. In the second XV match, Navy beat the Bonnies 24-5.

Match Recap

The Bonnies struck first in the match with a penalty goal by Wesley Chiromo in the 5th minute. Navy then leveled the match a minute later after a kick by Lewis Gray.

St. Bonaventure took the lead again in the 15th minute after a breakaway try by Alex Chura from Navy’s 10-meter line, which was converted by Chiromo, 10-3. The team extended the lead after a try by Jon Rodriguez from just outside the Bonnies 22-meters, which was converted again to lead 17-3.

In the 40th minute, Navy was able to penetrate the Bonnies in-goal with a try by Colin Argue. This cut the lead to 17-8 in a first half where St. Bonaventure excelled.

Second Half

Navy Head Coach must have inspired the team during halftime, as Navy answered with four tries to one for the Bonnies.

Seven minutes into the half, Thomas McMurrain added Navy’s second try with Kevin Strehle converting, 17-15. In the 53rd minute Strehle added a try and a conversion to take a 22-17 lead. Tyler Young added a try five minutes later and Strehle added a brace with a conversion for a 34-17 lead.

In the 80th minute, Alex Holden scored from a break just outside of Navy’s 22-meters, which was converted by Josh Smith for a final of 34-24 to Navy.

Scoring details are courtesy of D1A Rugby and from Rynhardt Forbes, a South African assistant coach and head performance analyst to the Bonnies Rugby program.

Comments

The St. Bonaventure University Men’s Rugby Club plays in the Rugby East and Navy joined the Mid-South D1A Rugby Conferences. Both are among the strongest conferences in the U.S. Both teams will be strong this year.

D1A Rugby East consists of consists of Army, Kutztown, Mary Washington, Notre Dame College, Penn State, and St. Bonaventure. The Mid-South includes Arkasas State, Clemson, Davenport, Life, Lindenwoood, and Navy.

In D1A weekend action, all home teams lost to the visiting teams. Nvay beat St Bonaventure 36-24, Ohio State beat Notre Dame 15-7, Kutztown won 36-8 over Mary Washington, Buffalo beat Albany 47-15, Syracuse beat Brockport 58-7, and Stony Brook edged Rhode Island 29-24. In a scheduled Sunday match, Notre Dame College reported that Wisconsin forfeited due to too many injuries.

In matches featuring D1A teams, Army lost to Trinity College 48-0 and beat Dartmouth 29-22. Penn State lost to Trinity College 69-17 on September 3, while Iona lost to Trinity College 61-12 on Saturday. Arkansas State beat Alabama 72-0, Clemson beat Texas A& M 27-13, Binghamton 43-5 RPI, Colgate 14-12 Ithaca, and Cortland beat Lemoyne.

Squads

SBU: 1 Jack Wiles (C) 2 North Westall 3 Juan Pen 4 Michael Driscoll 5 Grant Gutchall 6 Colin Sustersic 7 Chris Starkweather 8 Tyler Tomlinson 9 Jon Rodriguez 10 Wesley Chiromo 11 Josh Smith 12 Cory Ratka (VC) 13 Alex Holden 14 Charles Schwenk 15 Alex Chura 16 Evan Titus 17 Andrew Oleyar 18 Reed Hammond 19 Casey McGlory 20 Nicholas Dillon 21 Chris Ayer 22 Luke Vakasisikakala 23 Ultan Horrigan + HC Tui Osborne

Navy: 1 Clayton Kendrick-Holmes 2 Tyler Young 3 Dallas Elliston 4 Alex Bollmann 5 Zach Quilty 6 Gordon Livermore 7 Braedon Mead 8 Jermaine Oliver 9 Kevin Strehle 10 Lewis Gray 11 Mykol Brooks 12 Nicholas Forti 13 Frederick Bleakley 14 Collin Argue 15 Edward Howell 16 Andrew Malick 17 Dallas Jeanty 18 Adam McMurrain 19 Thomas McMurrain 20 Jacob Dewey 21 Frank Bell 22 John O’Hearn 23 Denver Fuller + HC Gavin Hickie