Rugby club beats SLCC, preps for Weber State

Utah State men’s rugby team won its quarterfinal matchup 42-31 over the Salt Lake Community College Bruins in Logan at the Aggie Legacy Fields on Saturday.

As the match began, a couple starting Utah State players went down with injury. Outside center Bryson Grondel said that bench players had to sub in, but they played well.

“We had guys come in and play hard,” Grondel said.

The Bruins took advantage of the Aggie injuries and went into the half with the lead.

Second-year Utah State coach Oisin Tong said the game was very similar to the last time the two teams met.

“I think we have a fitter team,” Tong said. “We played against them at the beginning of the year where it was extremely tight at the beginning, and we were able to keep up the same intensity and same pace on them to make them tired.”

The Aggies put up 22-unanswered points in the second half, winning by a final score of 42-31.

Ben Hola, who is known by his teammates as the “Tongan Horse” or “Horse Force” agreed with his coach.

“We just knew that if we kept going and kept playing the whole time, we would win,” Hola said. “As soon as the second half hit, we turned it on.”

Grondel also mentioned the change from the first half to the second.

“The second half was a different story,” Grondel said. “We came out, played hard, played good defense and our offense was explosive. They just couldn’t stop us the whole second half.”

The result of this quarterfinal matchup sets up a semifinal matchup against the Weber State Wildcats to be played in Ogden. Weber State defeated Boise State to set the table for an in-state rivalry match. The Aggies, however, have set their sights beyond the season ending to Weber.

”We’ve played Weber,” Grondel said. “We know we can beat Weber.”

Looking ahead to the possible championship game, Aggies are hoping for a rematch against Utah Valley to avenge a defeat from two weeks earlier during the regular season.

“We’ll beat ‘em,” said Hola of the possible rematch with Utah Valley. “We’ll have to work hard because they’re really, really good, but I think we’ll have a better chance this time around.”

Hola also said Utah Valley was the toughest team they have faced in the whole season.

Coach Tong knows some improvements that can be made before the Weber game.

“There’s a couple small things we can fix,” Tong said. “A couple guys were knocking the ball on as they got tired. Just fixing the small gaps in our game.”

Grondel and the rest of the team understand the importance of each game now that it’s tournament time.

“It’s do or die right now,” Grondel said. “We have our sights set on Rio Tinto making it to the national finals.”

— tparadise@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tristan0010