KANSAS CITY, MO – The Principia Rugby team took home first place on Saturday at the Kansas City 7s qualifier tournament to clinch their spot in the 2024 National Collegiate Rugby 7s Championship!
There were 16 teams competing for the KC title, so the tournament was set up in a 16 seeded bracket. Based on Principia's success this fall, the Thunder Chickens received the top seed and defeated the last seed Pittsburg State 45-0 in the first round. In the quarterfinals, Principia defeated Drury University 26-7, followed by a 27-0 victory over Sourthern Nazarene University in the semifinals.
This set up a showdown in the finals with the Principia's conference rival, Iowa Central. As the top two D1 teams in the tournament, the Tritons and Thunder Chickens had dominated play all day and were destined for a tight battle for the cup. The Tritons opened the scoring in the first half off of a missed throw by Principia on a line out. They held their 7-0 lead into halftime, but in the second half, the Thunder Chickens corrected their mental errors from early in the game and were more clinical the rest of the way.
Principia tied the game in the second half on a try by Damilola Odunuga off a nice feed from the ground by Francisco Alessio. The Thunder Chickens would continue to play composed defense as the match would head into sudden death overtime tied at 7. Early in OT, Alessio attempted an offload that an Iowa Central player blocked, and the ball fell right back in Alessio's hands as he outran their final defender into the try zone for the win. Damir Conci and Celino Petersen were named First Team All-Tournament, while Alessio and Andy Naringo were named Second Team All-Tournament.
"Our aim for the tournament was to be as tight a team as possible, working hard for each other," said Coach Kellerman afterwards. "Top of the list was to defend well and control the ball when we had it. We managed to do that in the tournament by only conceding two tries in four games. We have several players who can pose a threat to the opponent using their speed, power, and creativity. We experimented quite a bit with lineup combinations during the first two games, and in the end, we settled on a strong defensive combination for the last two games. The team came together and worked hard for each other, and it was great to see us rectify our early mistakes with a very composed finish in the second half of the final."
Up Next: The Thunder Chickens will compete in the Big Rivers conference tournament in Indianapolis on April 14 before heading to the Maryland SoccerPlex in the Washington DC area for Nationals on April 26-27.
