Men’s Rugby Knocks off Guelph in Spring Season Opener

Saturday, March 1

West Point, N.Y.

12:00 PM

Army West Point

Guelph

Men’s Rugby Knocks off Guelph in Spring Season Opener

March 01, 2025 | Men's Rugby

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army West Point Men's Rugby knocked off the Guelph Gryphons 53-17 at Shea Stadium Saturday to open their spring 2025 campaign.

With the win, the Black Knights improve to 9-1 overall in 2024-25.

Dakoda Wagner and Isaac Gamboa led Army with a pair of tries each, with Gamboa adding a conversion to pace the squad with 12 points.

Howie Heller added three conversions and a penalty for nine points.

Army started the match fast, with a Wagner try and conversion just six minutes into the fixture to put the Black Knights ahead 7-0.

After the Gryphons got within two points on a try 16 minutes into the match, Heller converted a penalty to put Army ahead 10-5.

Heller's penalty commenced a 27-0 scoring run for Army which extended into the second half, and featured tries from Elijah Manges, Jacob Bottarini, Nathan Gould and Wagner.

Wagner's second try of the match occurred just two minutes after halftime and extended the Black Knights' lead to 34-5.

Guelph got back onto the scoreboard four minutes into the second half, but Army responded with a Gamboa try at the 51-minute mark to go ahead 39-12.

After Guelph got five points back with a try at 56:30, Dylan Liskey scored a try, Gamboa recorded his second try of the fixture and Cort Schmidlin recorded his first career points with a conversion at the buzzer to conclude the match.

Coach's Corner

"We appreciate Guelph coming down and are looking forward to continuing our relationship," said Men's Rugby Head Coach Matt Sherman. "I thought this was a good starting performance to our spring, lots of positive aspects to build on, but Guelph also highlighted some areas we can and need to be better and we're looking forward to getting to work on those and continuing our season's ascent."

Cadet's Corner

"It was a great game against some great opposition and gave us a good opportunity for some self-evaluation in order to continue improving. Every opportunity to get out on the pitch and honor the jersey is a privilege. Now we need to continue climbing with a rapid rate of improvement and go into next week full steam ahead," said Wagner.

"The first game of the spring season was a good test of how much we improved and prepared over the offseason. Guelph is a good team and we are proud of our improvement throughout the match and the end result," said Heller.

"It was good to get back out on the pitch for the first time this spring against a very solid opponent. It was a great opportunity to put to practice what we've been working on all winter, and we're looking forward to building off of the foundation that we set this game," said Luke Lentfer.

"A great first step coming out of the winter work. Fought against a tough team which showed some strengths and weaknesses of ourselves that we can work on this upcoming week," said Liskey.

Next Up

Army is back in action at home next week for its regular season home finale. The Black Knights will celebrate senior day against Arizona, with a 12:00 p.m. first touch.

Follow the Black Knights

Follow Army Men's Rugby on X @ArmyWP_MRugby and on Instagram @armywp_rugby. Fans can also like Army West Point Athletics on Facebook and learn more about baseball and other programs at goarmywestpoint.com.