Army West Point defeated Mount St. Mary's in a tense encounter at the Mount Saturday, putting the Black Knights at 2-1 in the Rugby East.
With Navy looking very strong and Life right there with them, the fight for prominence out of this conference is a difficult one. The winner of this match is simply in a stronger position going forward.
Army opened the scoring early, working their way to the tryline and then putting flanker George Engels through on a short pass. Right after being named a Gamebreaker by GRR, Engels was monstrous on the day, making big gains and laying in some huge tackles, too.
His try was converted and that was followed up with a nice field-shifting play. Inside their own half Army got the ball back and sent it wide where Howie Heller kicked ahead and scrumhalf Isaac Gamboa chased the ball down, toed it on, and gathered it to score near the posts. Heller converted and it was 14-0 after 12 minutes.
Mount got one back when freshman lock Simon Rossi charged down a clearance kick and chased the ball down to score.
But Army stayed ahead.
A long kick rolled into touch as a 50-22 and set up an Army lineout in MSM's half. The ball was sent to the middle in short order, and after two hard phases in the midfield, Gamboa sold a dummy on the aggressive defenders and took off to score under the posts from about 18 meters out.
Heller converted and Army held an impressive 21-5 lead. Heller would add a long-range penalty goal to end the half 24-5.
The second half was very different. Mount added a penalty and later took a lineout on another penalty. From there they set up a charge from center Chase Brown, who simply would not be denied as he fought his way to paydirt.
