Carly Danner
The Mount St. Mary’s University men's rugby team prevailed over their opponent, the Southern Virginia University (SVU) team in the final game of the regular season. Over the course of the game, the Mount was off to a strong start, scoring with three unanswered tries from wickedly talented Mount players Xavier Lock (C '28) and Joe Sharrock (C' 26). Evan Corbett (C '26) converted all three kicks. SVU retaliated with two tries within a period of three minutes. The Mount continued to dominate with another try coming from Sharrock.
When half-time rolled around, the mighty Mountaineers led, with a score of 26-14. The Mounts' championship reign carried into the second half of the game with a try from Shemar Lewis (C '25) only ten minutes into the half. Eight minutes later, Dian Van Der Watt (C '28) scored another try for the Mount. Christopher Wylde (C '26) later scored a try, and Corbett converted two of his three kicks in the half, going five-for-six. Chase Brown (C’28) scored the final try of the game for the Mount. The conversion from Bastian Brunello (C '26) secured the Mounts' incredible victory worthy of significant celebration, the final score being 52-14. Lock was very kind to answer a few questions following the aftermath of the big game and the overall rugby season.
“The game went well, the first ten minutes was a tough start just staying in our systems to slowly break down their defense and test them out. Then we managed to break and score three tries unanswered. Lock explained when asked how he believed the game went. “Our opponents were a team that fed off momentum and a few silly errors from us allowed them to get back into the game. Just before halftime, we were able to score which settled the momentum. We came out in the second half with a clear plan again. The plan was to stick to the structure and we would get it done. We were able to finish the game without letting up any points and score 26 point spread within the second half. Brown scored his first try to seal the victory”. With the closing of the regular rugby season.
Lock described how the team plans to move forward after their final game of the season, explaining that they will continue to work hard and stay focused for their next game. “The team will stay focused looking to end the semester with a big game against Arizona for the bowl game so that’s a big opportunity for us. We’ve struggled this season with having patches of 20 minutes where we allow the other teams to get back into the game sometimes, which costs us. A big step for us moving forward is acknowledging that and working on not allowing this to happen. Hopefully, we will be able to present a full eighty minutes of rugby against Arizona to end our fall season.”
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