Wheeling, W.Va- After coming off a decisive 69-12 victory in week 1 against back to back Division II 15's champion Indiana University of Pennsylvania the Wheeling University Men's Rugby team heads to the University of Rio Grande. Rio Grande is coming off of a 34-24 victory against the University of Michigan.
In last week's victory against IUP, Wheeling was able to get lots of different players on the pitch and spread the love as 8 different Cardinals scored. It was a chance for some of the team's newer players to get their first career starts and they battled back and forth with the Crimson Hawks early on. After 10 minutes of neither team being able to push through, it was IUP who broke onto the scoreboard to take a 7-0 lead. Wheeling would have their response just four minutes later and once they started it was hard to stop. The Cardinals allowed just the one try in the first half, and headed into the locker room with a 17-7 lead. The Cardinals began to put their starters into the match in the second half and they would take over the game. Wheeling put up 52 points over the final 40 minutes of play as they sailed to a 69-12 victory to start the 2025 15's season.
Alex Nyamunda led the way with four tries, setting a new career-high for a single match. The senior did not play in the game's first half, but after subbing in at halftime, it took him just a minute and a half to make his presence felt. As the half continued, Nyamunda would score the first two tries of the new half and had the Cardinals off and running. As he enters Saturday's match, Nyamunda is nearing program history for 15's season play. He needs just two tries against the University of Rio Grande, which would make him the program's all-time leading try scorer in 15's season. Nyamunda scored 11 tries a season ago and looks to go above and beyond that number this season.
The other Cardinals player to score multiple tries in the match was Lawula Bata, who had 2 of his own. It was Bata who got the offensive momentum started early, scoring the team's first try in the match. Each of his two tries would come as a part of Wheeling's 17-point first half as he helped direct the younger players on the field. Bata missed the entire 2024 15's season due to injury, and is looking to help the Cardinals back to the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) 15's playoffs this season. Rounding out the big effort for the Cardinals was James Holland, who finished with a career-best 14 points. Holland took on the kicking duties for the Cardinals, going 7-10 (70%) on conversion kicks on the day
These two met last 15's season at Bishop Schmidt Field where Wheeling came away with a 62-25 victory. Alex Nyamunda came away with 3 tries then, look for Nyamunda to have another big impact this year as well.
The match takes place Saturday September 6th at 3pm at the Red Valley pitch and will be streamed HERE.
