This past weekend saw UMW's Men's Rugby traveling to New York in their third divisional match of the season to face Army West Point in a physical night match. Army came out of the gate with their hooker scoring a successfully converted try to put the score at 7-0. The next ten minutes saw much back and forth with UMW kicking for territory and Army continually bringing it back in with a vengeance. With UMW's defense holding true and the forwards working the midfield with powerful carries, the attack was finally able to get a break away with a long run by Captain Matt Gordon that ended with his try being held up. Quick work on the try line forced a penalty against Army allowing Prop Adam Thomson to slot a penalty kick putting the score 7-3 with UMW trailing by only four points in the 15th minute. Another 10 minutes of UMW continuing to work the ball quickly on the attack and dominating set pieces allowed Matt Gordon another chance to drive one in on a crash ball carry on the wing. The try conversion would be unsuccessful but UMW would take the lead 8-7 against the Black Knights. The rest of the first half would see both sides continually plagued with knockons and penalties resulting in scrums that UMW would continue to retain or steal. The end of the first half saw a very quick ruck with scrumhalf Jose Reyes passing to Matt Gordon on a forward crash line. Gordon executed a perfect pull pass to inside center Joseph Ritter who quickly found a hole in Army's defensive line to exploit. A quick 20m breakaway found fullback Bradlee Nicholls running quickly in support of Ritter to get a clean offload and score a diving try in the corner. The half ended with prop Adam Thomson slotting an impressive corner conversion kick putting UMW in the lead, 15-7.

The second half of the match would not go in the favor of UMW and Army would come out of the locker room firing and adjusting to the quick physical play of the Eagles. Within 10 minutes of the start of the second half, the Black Knights were able to get a try in off of a deep pod lineout maul bringing the score to 15-14 with UMW still in the lead by one point. Twenty minutes of back and forth physicality from both teams saw the game at a slow pace standstill. With UMW being contained and unable to work the ball out wide on the attack, Army quickly turned the tide of the game at the 70 minute mark with the first of a three try spree to finish the game. Two more tries would be scored at 76 minutes and 80 minutes by the Black Knights leaving them as the winners at 31-15.

UMW's Man of the Match went to Michael Sacks who played a full 80 minutes of physical rugby at second row and dominated set pieces and breakdowns throughout the game. The Eagles prep for their next match of the season at home against St Bonaventure University on Saturday November 2nd. Come out and support for a 12pm kickoff as they try to seal a win in the Rugby East D1A Conference.