ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Adrian College Men's Rugby team honored its Senior Class of 2024 on Saturday night at Docking Stadium prior to taking on Davenport in the final match of the season. The Bulldogs fell to the Panthers by a score of 39-12.
Saturday night, the rivalry between Davenport University and Adrian College continued as these two Michigan teams closed out the inaugural season for the Midwest Conference. The last match up from the fall, saw DU come out on top 34-10. This was a physical match from the get go as Davenport kicked off the ball to Adrian and had a big opening hit to foreshadow the physicality to come. The Panthers struck within the first two minutes, mauling in their line out deep in Bulldog territory, to go up 5-0.
Adrian responded quickly with a similar situation. After a penalty was granted to Adrian ten minutes into the first half,
Quinn Murray kicked the ball into touch within the five meter line. Adrian's captain, Nick Andiarena, called for a maul in which the team capitalized on.
Aspenisa Sailo was able to muscle his way off the back of the maul to dive in for the score, 5-5.
As the physicality in this match grew, twenty minutes into the first half, Davenport had a line out in Adrian's half. After a quick toss from the jumper in the line out to the scrumhalf, the fly half for Davenport broke through the defensive back line for the try. Conversion was good and the score was 12-5 in favor of DU.
With 13:35 left in the half, Adrian earned a line out in the opposition's half. This line out would lead to the second maul try for the Adrian forwards, as
Max Miller peeled off the back of the line out to score his second maul try in two matches. The conversion was kicked good by Sam Williams to even up the score 12-12. The score would remain the same going into the second half.
Adrian had an issue with penalties as there were many called in the second half against the Bulldogs that led to many points for Davenport. Within the first eight minutes of the second half, Davenport was up 18-12 after converting two penalty kicks, not too far from the uprights. With less than twenty minutes left to go in the match,
Jayden Ramsey received a yellow card for unsportsmanlike behavior, removing him from play for ten minutes and leaving Adrian at a man disadvantage, 15 on 14. This penalty led to a line out for Davenport in which their fly half dished the ball off to a support runner who then broke through the line for another try and conversion, to make it 25-12 for DU.
With less than five minutes left in the match, Davenport was right outside the try zone about to score. A strong defensive front helped Adrian hold up the scoring effort, allowing for a goal-line drop to AC. However, a botched dropkick to exit was quickly turned into seven points for Davenport as they fielded the kick to score. Davenport now leads, 32-12. Another yellow card to Adrian with two minutes left, gave Davenport prime field position to maul in another try from the line out and close out the match. Final score would finish 39-12 in favor of Davenport.
The Adrian College Men's Rugby team finished out the overall season with a 3-8 record while going 2-4 in the Midwest Conference play.
