Win Over GVSU Good Step Forward for Trine
Win Over GVSU Good Step Forward for Trine
Trine University rugby took a nice step forward this past weekend, beating a very strong Grand Valley State University side 38-26.
For a young Trine side that is building and had run into a couple of lopsided defeats, this was an important result.
This was the first home game for the Thunder and was played under the lights against GVSU—ranked #13 by GRR going into thr weekend. Trine opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a quick tap from freshman flyhalf Dan Seymour, who offloaded to sophomore prop Wayne Ager to drive over. Seymour slotted the conversion to open the scoring 7-0. About six minutes later Seymour popped a nicely-weighted crossfield kick for upperclassman wing Rhett Saylor to chase down. Saylor was taken into touch, but the ensuing lineout from GVSU was not straight leading to a scrum for Trine. It was from that platform that freshman No. 8 Broc Roper picked up and drove to just short of the tryline. Over Trine went, but were held up.
The Lakers did well to turn that around to a good attacking chance. Wing Noah Purdue broke down the sideline but Seymour and scrumhalf Brian Tippman took him into touch. The Lakers stayed in Thunder territory however and capitalized on a isolated player to score at 31 minutes, making it 7-7.
Trine kicked off but was able to regain the restart and looked set to score—Seymour broke several tackles to get close but lost the ball forward before he reached paydirt. Finally, senior center Nate Ware broke through and that was followed on by a run from senior center Rex Chapman-Shadik. Ware finished off the passage of play a few phases later, breaking two tackles and crashing over line to make the score 12-7 going into halftime.
Grand Valley took the lead in the first minute of the second half with a nice sequence of passing and breaking some tackles to score a converted try and lead 14-12.
But moments later Trine was back in front. The Thunder marched down to the tryline and sophomore flanker Joey Sheets got Trine within inches of scoring. Ager picked up and was over for his second try of the game which, with Seymour's conversion, made it 19-15 for Trine.
Seymour's kicking game was on point throughout the game and his long kick to touch (55 meters) on a penalty set up a well-executed lineout that was mauled over—Ager got his third and now it was 24-14.
Seymour followed that kick to touch up with a 50-22 right off the restart. The Thunder kept up the pressure after that and finally Seymour skated through some defenders to touch down at 68 minutes. That made it 31-14.
The Lakers ended strong, however, running a nice weakside move for a try and then burning Trine off a 22-dropout that GVSU retained and took to the line.
Now only a try ahead at 31-26, Trine managed to finish it off. They got a scrum and Ware made several defenders miss as he ran 20 meters to score and make it 38-26.
Trine forwards dominated the match making several big tackles, stealing six GVSU scrum put-ins, and also stealing three opposition lineouts. Ager led the team with three tries while Seymour, with a try and four conversions, logged 13 points.
For Head Coach Danny Breda, this was a good team confidence-booster as the team showed they are coming together and learning not only how to score and defend, but how to close out a game.
