South Bend, IN. – On Saturday, the Wheeling University Rugby team competed in their second 7's tournament of the season at the Irish 7's. They played four games as part of the tournament, and went 2-2 with wins over Christendom and Tennesse, while taking losses to St. Bonaventura and Kentucky. The Cardinals did not win the tournament, but they move forward with the same end goal of making it to the 2022 National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Collegiate 7's playoffs.
Game One: Wheeling 25, Christendom 5
In game one, the Cardinals battled Christendom in their first round matchup and got contributions up and down the lineup. They got out to a lead early and never looked back on their way to a 25-5 win to move on to the second round. It was a big match for
Mohamed Haddar, as he scored three of his team's five tries on the day, bringing his sevens total up to to seven in two tournaments played.
Jose Oltra scored a try, his first of the 7's season, and
Rua Karimazondo began his day with the team's final tr to bring Wheeling to 25 points on the day. Wheeling did not convert on any of their conversion kick, and Christendom scored one try before the end of regulation to give Wheeling the 25-5 win. They moved on to the second round of the tournament where they would have St. Bonaventura.
Game Two: St. Bonaventura 22, Wheeling 7
In the second game or the day, Wheeling would match up with one of the top teams in the tournament in the Bonnies. They allowed a few tries early, and fell behind by two tries before getting on the board. They scored their lone try of the day when Stanley Gianni found his way across the goal line to give Wheeling their first points of the day. Chief Chipfumbu followed it up with the conversion kick and gave Wheeling seven points on the day. However, the Bonnie's had just a little bit more offensive success and ended up winning the game 22-7. The loss knocked them out of the running for the tournament championship, but they stayed alive as they moved down to the Qualifier Shield Bracket to try and keep their chances of qualifying for the national playoffs alive.
Game Three: Kentucky 22, Wheeling 7
In the third game of the day, Wheeling ended up going against Kentucky in their first round Qualifier Shield Bracket match. Once again, the Cardinals tell behind early thanks to a quick Kentucky offense and were forced to play from behind. Oltra was responsible for the line Wheeling try, his second on the day, to get Wheeling's first five points of the contest.
Ayoub Jalli converted on the conversion kick and brought Wheeling's point total to seven. That is all they would get as Kentucky went on to win 22-7. This knocked Wheeling out of the Qualifier Shield Bracket and would end their day in the consolation bracket. They would battle Tennessee looking to end their day on a high note before heading back to Wheeling.
Game Four: Wheeling 31, Tennessee 5
With the Cardinals officially out of the running for the playoff Qualifier, they were wrapping up their day with a match against Tennessee. The Cardinals had scored five different tries by five different players in the win. The first try came courtesy of
Alec Thomas, his second try of the season, and
Navin Couch followed him up with his first try.
Anthony Krzesinski and
Josh Blankenship each added their first tries of the seven's season and fit Wheeling ahead early.
Ayoub Jalli scored his sixth try of seven's season to round out the scoring and made three conversion kicks to bring Wheeling's point total to 31. Tennesse added one try to finish the day and Wheeling ended up winning the game 31-5.
Overall, Head Coach Mike Geibel said his team could do better, but was happy that they were able to salvage two games on the weekend.
"Overall, we are a bit disappointed in our performance," said Geibel. "Happy to get the wins to bookend the day but our two losses were against teams we know that we can compete better than what the score showed. We had some injuries and made mistakes that cost us the momentum, which is key in 7's and we weren't able to recover in those two losses."
The Wheeling University Rugby team will return home next weekend when they host the Nail City 7's tournament beginning Saturday, April 2nd, at 9 AM.
