Wheeling, W. Va. – The Wheeling University Homecoming & Family weekend festivities officially got underway on Friday afternoon at Bishop Schmitt Field. The Wheeling University Men's Rugby team (1-1, 1-0) opened Big Rivers Rugby Conference (BRRC) play as they battled Rio Grande on senior day. The team honored their eight seniors with a 62-25 win in front of a crowd of friends, family, and alumni.
It took just seven minutes for the Cardinals to get on the board, as senior Joe Iye showed off his strong running. He slashed his way through the Red Storm defense and touched the ball down to give Wheeling a 5-0 lead. Shadreck Mandaza continued his perfect streak on conversion kick and Wheeling was stakes to a 7-0 lead. Mandaza would continue his strong kicking just seven minutes later, pushing through his first Penalty Kick of the night and the Cardinals extended their lead to 10-0. Davenport got on the board with a Penalty Kick of their own four minutes layers and it was a 10-3 game in the 17th minute. The Cardinal defense would lock down for the rest of the half, allowing just those three points over the final 23 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal's offense just kept scoring and it was Iye who would get them back in the try zone. In the 24th minute, he was able to score his second try of the senior day, and a Mandaza conversion kick made it 17-10 Cardinals. It was the start of a string of quick scoring for the Cardinals as four minutes later, Mandaza nearly took the ball coast to coast. However, he flipped the ball to Ayoub Jalli, who touched the ball down between the uprights and Mandaza had his third conversion kick of the day and the Cardinals found themselves ahead 24-3. The Cardinals would get on the board one more time before the half, when Alex Nyamunda made it into the try zone and sent the Cardinal's into the locker room with a 31-3 lead. Iye led the way for the Cardinals in that first half, scoring 10 points while Mandaza was a perfect 4-4 on conversion kicks and added a penalty kick on the day.
The second half began with a Rio Grand Penalty Kick from Thiobalt Carrere that made it 31-6, but the Cardinals were quick to get back on the board. Aaron Juma ran over a few Red Storm defenders, and found the try zone for his second of the year. Mandaza added the conversion and the Cardinals were up 38-6. It was the start of a flurry of scoring with 24 points being scored over the next six minutes. Wheeling would get tries from Joe Iye and Juma during the run, while Mandaza added his second Penalty Kick to make it a 48-13 Wheeling lead. As the match went on, Mike Geibel was able to substitute his reserves and they kept it going right where the starters left off.
In the 66th minute, Alex Nyamuda would score his second try of the day, and Mandaza's conversion made it 55-13. Nyamunda would add the final Cardinal try of the day in the 74th minute and Mandaza would finish it out with a conversion kick to get Wheeling to the 62-point mark. Rio Grande would add two more tries courtesy of Thubault Carrere and Laau Taii, and the match came to its final score of 62-25. The Cardinals scored 40+ points for the second straight match as they start conference play 1-0.
Leading the way for the Cardinals on senior day was senior Joe Iye, who finished with three tries on the day, totaling 15 points. Iye set a new career-high for tries in a single game as he made the most of his senior day celebration. Shadreck Mandaza finished as the team's point leader on the day, putting up 19 points. He was 8-8 on conversion kicks on the season, moving his average to 12-12 on the year, and added a penalty kick to round out his day. Alex Nyamunda added three tries of his own on the day while Ayoub Jalli and Aaron Juma scored the other two tries for the Cardinals.
The Wheeling University Men's Rugby team returns to action on Saturday, October 5th, when they travel to take on Thomas More with kick-off at 1 PM.
