Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Iona
Rugby Remains Perfect, Escapes Iona 26-19
October 11, 2014 | Men's Rugby
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Despite a rocky start, the Army men's rugby team claimed its fourth straight victory to open the 2014 season, defeating Iona 26-19 at Anderson Rugby Complex under the lights on Sunday night.
"It was a good game, hard fought," head coach Mike Mahan said. "We wouldn't quit and that's what's really important."
Iona came out hot, getting up by as much as 12-0 through 37 minutes of play.
The nationally ranked Black Knights, however, rebounded, showing their dominance to close out the game.
"We came out, unfortunately we might have been a little flat," Magee said. "Those kids are all New York boys so the opportunity for them to come to West Point and play at Anderson Rugby Complex is a huge deal for them, so we kind of knew they were going to come out tough. We unfortunately didn't match their toughness, but the team really rallied. I feel like that's a characteristic of an Army rugby team, we don't give up, we're going to play that 80 minutes and we're going to come out with the W no matter what."
Jacob Banarhall added Army's first try in the 38th minute, with Logan Pearce converting the kick.
Army headed into the break trailing the Gaels 12-7.
The Black Knights dominated the second half, with captain Collum Magee muscling through the Iona defense for a score in the 53rd minute. Pearce was again successful on the kick, giving Army the 14-12 lead.
Just three minutes later, Andrew Fargo capitalized on a burst of speed, running down the right side of the field, for his second try of the season. Pearce would capitalize on his third conversion of the evening and Army took the 21-12 lead.
"(Thomas) Del Pino got the ball out of the ruck and he attacked the line and I came through and broke their defensive line," Fargo said. I saw open space and I committed to the inside and then broke outside and just took their fullback to the corner and beat him. It was a good try and it felt good to get it down there."
David Huff added the Black Knights' final score of the game with an explosion of speed down the right side to give Army the 26-12 lead, as Pearce's kick bounced off the crossbar. Huff's first try of the game, was called back after it was deemed that the ball bounced off of his knee before touching the ground.
"They kicked the ball and it came right to me, I looked at the opposite No. 10 and he looked at me and I just went to the outside and burned him on the edge," Huff said. "It felt good because my first one didn't work out very well."
Iona kept the game interesting, scoring in the 72nd minute to pull within seven points of the Army lead. In more than five minutes of stoppage time play, the Gaels threatened, forcing Army to come up with big defensive stops deep in their own territory.
Despite the late pressure from the Gaels, Army walked away with the 26-19 victory.
"First of all, we came out with the win, so that's the important part," Pearce said. "They came out playing tough and we just weren't ready for it at this point, but we're working to get better every week, so you can expect us to come out even harder next week."
With the victory, the men improve to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in Rugby East Conference action. They'll continue their toughest stretch of games on the season, traveling to Buffalo on Oct. 18 for a 1 p.m. meeting with the Bulls. They'll then return home for back-to-back high implication games, first facing top-ranked Kutztown on Oct. 25, before battling with service academy rival Air Force.
Players Mentioned
