St. Louis, MO. -- The Principia College rugby team, the Thunder Chickens, defeated five teams this weekend to claim the
Ward Patterson Gateway 7s Championship. This gives them an automatic bid into the USA Rugby Men's D2 College 7s National Championship which will be held in Tucson, Arizona May 24th and 25th!
Leading up to the tournament the team focused on playing with intensity, desire, enthusiasm, and joy. The team started out with a very strong showing in pool play, defeating University of Missouri Kansas City 57 - 0 and Maryville University 47 - 0. Those two wins put Principia as the #1 seed going into the quarterfinals, where they met Washington University-St. Louis. The Thunder Chickens had a strong showing, winning 45 – 0, and several players coming off the bench to provide valuable rest time for their teammates. The semi-final game was against Southern Illinois University, a long-time rival. The first half was tightly contested, with no scoring until Principia got two tries in the last thirty seconds of the first half. In the second half they used their fitness to score four more tries, bringing the final score to 35 - 0.
The championship game was against long-time rival Saint Louis University, who beat Principia in a pair of scrimmages earlier in the semester. Three minutes into the game Tre Goodman caught a pass off a scrum, broke two tackles, and made a huge run and score. Not long after that he had another break through run for Principia's second score, which put Principia up 14 - 0 at half time. Both teams demonstrated particularly competent attacks on offense and strong tackling on defense. Midway through the second half Saint Louis University scored off an excellent attack line, bringing the game to 14-7, the final.
Tre Goodman,
Pyetha Kyaw,
Zeya Kyaw, and
Robert McAloney were named to the all-conference team.
This weekend was not only a great showing for the starters, but was also a testament to the work the B side has done all year to push the starters to be better.
The Gateway Conference 7s Tournament was renamed the "
Ward Patterson Gateway 7s Championship" in honor of Principia's Head Coach,
Ward Patterson!
Stay tuned as more information will be posted about the upcoming National Tournament!
