Rugby Strong in League Opener

By John Graham
Community SubmissionThe Longwood men's rugby team had to adapt at the last minute this past weekend but was still able to overpower Hampden-Sydney College (H-SC) 43-0 in their Virginia Rugby Union (VRU) season opener. Farmville Police and university officials closed the team's home field Saturday morning due to recent local events. That meant on Saturday morning the team had to scramble and the home game would have to be played on the H-SC campus. The H-SC team was very understanding and helped out immediately with accommodating the change.

The last-minute change left the LU teams performance flat in the first 12 minutes of the game, even though they kept the pressure on and dominated play in the attacking end of the field. Jaye "JJ" Kennedy opened the scoring with a try in the twelfth minute to make the score 5-0. After that the first-half opened up with three more tries from Preston Leep, James "Lumberjack" Betz and James "Kimmy" Bittner. Two conversions made the halftime score 24-0.

In the second half H-SC fought back, but was unable to score. Three more scores from Patrick Baden, Paul Brockman and Dan Waite plus conversions from Baden and Austin Lux made the final score 43-0. Bittner was named man-of-the-match with other excellent performances from Dustin "Marine" Meadows, and Alex "Ropes" Randall. A second match with the reserve teams saw LU defeat H-SC 31-0.

This coming Saturday the men take on Washington and Lee University (W&L) in a Family Weekend game at the First Avenue field, while the women travel to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond to open their season. For more information, visit longwoodrugby.org.