Gonzaga University, 7s, Men's College 7s, NCRC

Gonzaga U 7s Starts Strong

Mac Booey photo.

09.27.2016 - Alex Goff

Gonzaga University is savoring a fairly successful Sunday at the Western Washington 7s, in which the team finished 2nd to Univerity of Victoria.

The previous weekend, Gonzaga had won the Idaho Thunderdome 7s, beating Idaho, Washington State Bs, Eastern Washington, WSU-Tri Cities, and WSU As.

In the final of that tournament, Gonzaga came back from a 15-14 halftime deficit to win it - Darragh Ruane drew a defender and offloaded to freshman Jonathan Kim who scored the final try in the corner.

Senior Joe Keane scored a team-high 6 tries, played well both offensively and defensively, was a tenacious tackler, and set up his teammates on numbers occasions.

On Sunday, at the WWU 7s, Gonzaga beat the Western Washington C side, University of British Columbia, and WWU’s Bs. That UBC score of 41-0 was certainly a surprise in terms of how convincing it was. Gonzaga then fell 38-14 to UVic in the final.

“We had a very good day on Sunday and performed well in every game,” said club president Matthew Hoffeditz. “We came across a very talented UVIC team that capitalized well on our mistakes and made it difficult for us to find to find holes and gain possession.”

Senior Daniel Hodge had a team-high five tries in the Vikings 7s tournament.

Next up for Gonzaga is the Boise State University 7s tournament, and then they will host the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference 7s tournament in Spokane, Wash. on October 15-16.

“We have a strong group of seniors this year and have had several impactful freshman come up big early,” added Hoffeditz. “We're missing a good amount of junior players studying abroad this fall that will help add a lot of depth come next spring. The year looks bright for our team in both 7s and 15s.”