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The Kansas City Blues defeated the Pitt State Men’s Rugby Club (66-36) in a match Saturday, April 20.
This was the Third Annual Patrick Mercer Memorial Match.
“Well we did not do bad, but we also did not do great,” Club president Grant Schultz said. “We played the Kansas City Blues in the Third Annual Patrick Mercer Memorial Match. Patrick Mercer was a kid who was a Pitt State rugby captain when I got here, and he graduated and moved up to Kansas City… and when he did, he went on to play for the Kansas City Blues. He was killed in a motor vehicle accident leaving rugby practice. So, we play every year annually in memorial of him.”
Despite trailing on the scoreboard for most of the game, Schultz was proud of the team for not giving up.
“I would say that we were resilient,” Schultz said. “We were down quite a bit at the end of the first half and then the second half it was like we were a different team. (We) put a lot of points on the board and made a pretty good comeback but it just was not enough.”
Team Captain Ty Goss was also happy to see the team continue on despite trailing.
“We started off really slow,” Goss said. “Everyone was kind of sluggish and I think we kind of thought we would just go in and roll them which is never the case with a men’s club. But we really bounced back (and) it showed our tenacity this game…. Going into halftime it was like 45-7 so just the fact that we fought back and cut the score to half is fantastic. It really kind of showed our guys do have the drive which makes me happy going into the next season.”
A few players stood out to Schultz in the match.
“Mack Mckissick had a really good game,” Schultz said. “Brad Payne had a really good game. Evan Garret had a really good game. So did Caleb Dial as well.”
Several players also stood out to Goss.
“Mack… had a really good game,” Goss said. “He has improved a lot over the season, and you can really see that in his play. Sam Long had a pretty good game as well… Bradley Payne had an outstanding game as well, especially running the ball.”
The next rugby match is a home game against Kansas University (KU) Saturday, April 27.
“(I hope we) just to get back into the win column,” Schultz said. “…Last time we played them we beat them and that is our clubs biggest rival so (I hope) just to beat them. It doesn’t have to be pretty.”
Goss is anticipating the match with KU and knows it will be a challenge for the team.
“With KU it will be a little difficult,” Goss said. “They are a pretty good DI team. The good news is we are playing them at home, so we do have (a) home field advantage. The biggest thing is (keeping) the score closes especially going into halftime and hopefully pull out the win in the second half.”
The Rugby Club encourages anyone to join and is always accepting new players.
