WEST POINT, N.Y. (Army Sports Release) – A first half explosion that led to the Army West Point men’s rugby team heading into the locker room with a 34-0 advantage set the tone for the Black Knights’ 56-5 victory over Dartmouth from Anderson Rugby Complex on Saturday. 

Junior Luke Huen opened the scoring early in the match, touching down in the second minute. He would add scores in the 14th and 76th minutes as well, becoming just the fifth match that a Cadet has scored three tries. 

Sandwiched between Huen’s first two tries was a score from Mitchell Sanderson with Thomas Del Pino connecting on the conversion to increase the lead to 12-0. 

Del Pino’s second conversion came after Jake Lachina’s contribution to the score sheet in the 18th minute. Senior Peter Basnight would score his first of two tries four minutes later after fighting through a mob of the Big Green. John Sproul closed out the first half scoring for the Black Knights two minutes before the intermission. 

The Black Knights’ offense was not their only dominant facet of the first half as the Cadets held strong with their backs against the wall. With Dartmouth in the red zone, Army’s team defense stopped multiple pushes over a two-minute stretch from the Big Green and eventually forced a turnover to preserve the shutout. 

Dartmouth came out of the break rejuvenated, scoring for the first time in the 47th minute. 

After a 17-minute period where neither side could gain enough of an advantage to put points on the board, team captain Donny Goff’s persistence yielded the Framingham, Mass.-native his first try of the spring.  A minute after being part of part of a four-player swap for Army, reserve Joseph Pervall took advantage of his opportunity, touching down before Del Pino converted for the third time. 

Army will continue its spring season in Utah with games against BYU on March 17 and Utah on March 19. Next up for Dartmouth is the Varsity Cup April 9 against Penn State.