May in Indianapolis isn't all about auto racing and The Brickyard.
The 20
th-ranked
Grand Canyon University Men's Rugby team did its own racing Saturday afternoon at the D1A Rugby Challenger's Cup Semifinals at GCU Soccer Stadium on the GCU campus, running through and around 21
st-ranked Utah State University en route to a 72-6 rout. The win extended the Lopes' season by one more very important match as it sends them to Indianapolis, Indiana in two weeks for the Challenger's Cup Final.
Coming off an 18-point win two weeks ago over UC Santa Cruz in the quarterfinals, the Aggies hoped quick feet would lead to busier hands as they used the normally busy foot of USU scoring leader Franco Tellechea to take a 3-0 edge just two minutes into the match. From there, the Aggies had numerous scoring chances in the first half but were either thwarted by a stout Lopes' defense or by their own miscues. For the Lopes, quick hands and feet worked in perfect unison from the 12
th minute on. A 30-meter
Luke Neely sprint up the middle gave GCU a scrum deep in USU territory, which they used to piledrive the Aggies into the try zone, with
Vince McKeefery diving on the rolling ball to give the Lopes the lead. GCU took the ensuing kickoff and ran away from the Aggies, with
Brennen Boyle's breakaway run setting up
Nigel Johnson's score. The unselfish Lopes' passing became a disease USU couldn't cure, with on-point laterals giving GCU the open edges and resulting in untouched scoring runs by
Ben Saunders,
Jackson Gray, and then a pair from Boyle in a 10-minute span, and suddenly, it was a 36-3 Grand Canyon cushion at halftime.
The raucous Lopes' crowd could've just left then and replayed the
Varsity Sports Show stream of the first half, since the 2
nd half was nearly a carbon copy of the first 40 minutes. Tellechea again started the scoring with an early penalty kick, then gave way as the Lopes poked hole after hole in the tiring Aggies' defense to skate into the try zone for another 36 unanswered points. McKeefery rang up his second try of the day in the 57
th minute, which opened the floodgates for
Gene Kendall, Boyle's third of the day, and a second half 'hat trick' by
Lewis Case to match Boyle's output. Besides his first-half try, Saunders was 6-for-11 in two-point conversions to help extend the Lopes' winning streak to three and put them (5-4 overall) above the .500 mark for the first time this season.
"That was not an easy 70-point performance today," said
Lopes' Head Coach Sean O'Leary. "That wasn't a "run it up" score. That was being unselfish and using what we had. The pleasing part was we played away from contact. We knew they were big, and once USU knew they couldn't win the game, they tried to win the war, and we wound up winning that, too. It's a sign of maturity. I've known for a while what our potential is, and we're coming good at the right time."
Several Lopes' seniors will make their own history next weekend as they participate in GCU Commencement ceremonies at Global Credit Union Arena, then will join the rest of their teammates in the Hoosier State for the inaugural Challenger's Cup Final on Saturday, May 3 as part of College Rugby Association of America's Championship Weekend. The Lopes will take on the Eagles of University of Mary Washington (Virginia), who dispatched Ohio State University, 71-0, Saturday afternoon to earn its berth in the title match. Kickoff time is still to be announced.
