Rugby Suffers First Loss of Season at Dartmouth

Saturday, October 9

Hanover, NH

1 PM

Army West Point

Dartmouth

Rugby Suffers First Loss of Season at Dartmouth

October 09, 2021 | Men's Rugby

By: Phil Tor

HANOVER, N.H. - With 13 new guys inserted into the starting lineup, the Army West Point men's rugby team battled the Dartmouth Big Green on the road on Saturday. The Brothers fought hard, but fell to the Dartmouth Rugby club by a score of 21-10.

Adam Bazan and Dom Tianga both found the end zone to record tries, but it was not enough to lift the Black Knights to the result.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Ahead of its final two Rugby East contests, Coach Matt Sherman opted to give some new faces a crack at the starting lineup in the contest. 12 Cadets made their first start of the 2021 campaign against the Big Green.

The Brothers battled from the jump, putting up an impressive defensive showing in the first half, keeping Dartmouth out of the try-zone for the first 40 minutes of action. Dartmouth was able to put two penalty kick scores on the board to put them in fron 6-0 going into the first break in the action.

Army was able to respond at the 47 minute mark with the first try score of the game courtesy of Adam Bazan. Dartmouth responded with a try score of their own to push their lead to 15-4.

Army would make another run at the try zone, with Dom Tianga punching it in this time. The five-points cut the Dartmouth lead to six at the 58-minute mark.

The Brothers made a few final pushes, but were unable to piece a run together, flailing to the Big Green by a score of 21-10.

COACH SHERMAN'S POST GAME REACTION
"Credit to Dartmouth for putting us under pressure and there's a lot of good lessons we can learn from this step on our journey. Despite the outcome, I came away with a lot of confidence in the players who performed today and our team on the whole and am excited to see where we can improve from here." - Army Rugby Head Coach Matt Sherman

BOX SCORE
31:00 - Dartmouth - Penalty kick (3-0)
35:30 - Dartmouth - Penalty kick (6-0)
44:45 - Dartmouth - Drop kick (9-0)
47:56 - Army - Try - Adam Bazan (9-5)
55:30 - Dartmouth - Try (14-5)
56:30 - Dartmouth - Conversion (16-5)
58:00 - Army - Try - Dom Tianga (16-10)
70:30 - Dartmouth - Try (21-10)

UP NEXT
Army will round out their Rugby East schedule these next two weeks. The Brothers will travel to Pennsylvania for a tilt with Kutztown before renewing their rivalry with Navy at FedEx field while opening up the 1874 Cup between the All Blacks and USA Rugby.