Arkansas State University defeated Davenport University Friday night in two non-conference games - A-side and B-side.

With 11 guys injured and unavailable and could not make the trip, ASU needed a lot of young players to step up to the challenge and fill in the vacuum left by veteran varsity players such as Alex Goff, Harry Higgins, Connor Cook, Zach Allen who were injured, including some that were just unavailable due to other family commitments.

Head Coach Delaibatiki was not available to take the players up to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and so the reins were given to former All American standout and now Assistant Coach, Shaun Potgieter.

"Shaun Potgieter is a natural leader so I knew that all will be fine. I trust my coaches, and would be comfortable letting them run the show when I am not around. That’s why you have them there as coaches because at any given moment they can step in and take charge," said Delaibatiki. "The guys were in good hands, and all the all boys rallied around Coach Shaun Potgieter, and managed to pull off two great wins not allowing Davenport University to cross the goal line at all. All their points came from penalties we conceded and they took the option to kick for points when we got penalized with infringements, which is a good move on their part, but our boys were solid on defense, which is something we have been working on this past season. I watched the game on Davenport Universities live feed and it looked like we started slow, but than stepped it up big time when we came out hot in the second half of the game. There are still things we have to fix and improve on as a team, but we will definitely take the win."

Arkansas State's two standout players were the team captains, Tom Haussrer for Varsity and Derrick McMahon of Chicago, Ill. for the Emerging XV.

SCORES:
Game 1: ASTATE Varsity 51 - 12 Davenport University Varsity
Game 2: ASTATE Emerging XV 31-3 Davenport University JV

“We really wanted to build our base and depth in the team, especially with our guys being injured and unavailable, and the best way to do that is against a solid rugby school who we have a lot of respect for, in Davenport University," said Potgieter.

Several ASU freshmen were featured in the game, including: Judah Obueghi (Marietta, Georgia), Siaosi Finau (Euless, Texas), Nicolas Abreus (Houston, Texas), Jaime Togores (Madrid, Spain), Blace Walser (Oklahoma), Zach Mohr (Clinton, Iowa), David Snead (Glendale, Colorado), Tanner Pope (Houston, Texas), NeMia Mark Qoro (East Palo Alto, California).

The ASU Emerging XV, led by Derrick McMahon, was made up of a lot of freshmen, also had a good run and showcased the same type of game as its Varsity side. Neil Maestri, a promising young player from Houston, wasn’t able to squeeze himself into the mix for the A-side game and had to settle for JV time.

“That’s a great problem to have as a coach," said Delaibatiki. "It keeps all our players on their toes because if they don’t perform, they get replaced. Its always been based on performance. I always tell my players as well, that just because they didn’t make the cut into varsity doesn’t mean they didn’t perform well the previous game to get seen."