Gryphon rugby men dispose of stubborn Badgers
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons wrapped up the home portion of their OUA men’s rugby season Saturday with a 43-21 victory over the Brock Badgers at Varsity Field.
“It would’ve been nice to have them spread out a little bit, but we’re happy to build some momentum at home,” coach Cory Hector said. “Now, hopefully, we’ll just work on being back here for the playoffs.”
Guelph Gryphons 43 Brock 21
Playing in front of numerous Gryphon rugby alumni, the current Gryphs showed their tenacity as they outlasted the stubborn Badgers.
“We were good in certain spots and when we weren’t, they made us pay,” Hector said. “Ultimately, we want to be in games and we want to be in good games and tight games. Having a good Brock team put us under pressure is exactly what we need.
“You don’t want blowouts, you want to be in games every week. I think the guys want to be in games, they’ll learn from that.”
The Gryphs did have a blowout win in their opening game a week earlier, a 74-7 victory over the Waterloo Warriors.
While the Gryphs never trailed in Saturday’s game, they couldn’t put Brock away until the final half hour when they added a pair of converted tries to leave the final margin at 22 points. They had scored a try in the final six minutes of the first half to hold a 24-14 lead at the break.
The Gryphs spread the scoring around with no player scoring more than one try. Getting the tries were Cooper Grau, Jacob Ince, Alex Williamson, Max Goodwin, Colin Smibert, Mark Christopher and Alex Chaffey. Aria Keshoofy kicked four converts.
Devon Ollson, Steve Commerford and Liam Boyenga each had a try for Brock while Carter Bondy converted all three tries.
“I think we could be just a little sharper defensively and not give up as many points and just some of those little errors that crept in around the field, just finishing more things off,” Hector said. “I thought we got into their 22 a number of times, but didn’t come away with points so we’ll try to fix that.”
Guelph leads the West Division at 2-0 while the Laurier Golden Hawks are at 1-0, Brock’s at 1-1, Waterloo’s at 0-1 and the Western Mustangs are at 0-2.
The Gryphs have two road games left on their regular-season schedule as they’re to play the Western in London Friday at 7 p.m. and Laurier in Waterloo Oct. 16 at 1 p.m.
Top two teams in the division will meet in a league semifinal Oct. 30 with the winner advancing to the championship match a week later.
- Guelph Sports Journal