CHICAGO — Arkansas State University defeated Notre Dame, 32-17, this weekend in men’s college rugby.

“Notre Dame is a very good team,” said A-State head coach Blake White. “Their players challenged us physically throughout the match, particularly with their big forwards. The first half was some of the best rugby we’ve played all year, but we just didn’t capitalize enough.”

A-State got on the board first with the team try made successful by Brock Roper to make the score, 5-0. Dylan Boast connected on the penalty kick shortly after to up the lead to 8-0. Tanner Pope’s score and Boast’s conversion lifted the Red Wolves to the 15-0 lead. Boast added another conversion kick to Tabo Maree’s try to build the lead to 22-0.

The Fighting Irish began a flurry of scoring with a try and conversion to cut into A-State’s lead, 22-7. Next was a good penalty kick to add three to make the score, 22-10. Things got serious quickly when another Notre Dame score narrowed the gap to 22-17.

Freshman Romain Merlo put a stop to the ND scoring burst, getting the try in the corner with 13 minutes left, and increasing the Red Wolf lead to 27-17. Tommy Montgomery added Arkansas State’s final points with two minutes remaining to end the match, 32-17.

“Notre Dame came out hot in the second half and took control of the match for a while,” added White. “It was good to see that we can get knocked back and are able to work to create our own momentum.”

A-State, now 6-0 during the fall schedule, will return to action Saturday, Nov. 17, to host Life University in the home finale. The match starts at 1 p.m. at Curt Huckaby Field.