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                         April 26, 2002

Playing against a tough and determined team from St. Mary’s, the Army Ruggers showed skill and dedication as they advanced to the USA Rugby Collegiate National Championship Final Four Sunday with a 30-13 win.

Army defeated Virginia Tech 37-7 Saturday to advance to the regional final.

Army moves on to the Final Four, which be held in Virginia Beach, Virginia, May 4-5.  There, they will face Cal Berkeley at 2:00 p.m., May 4.  San Diego State University and Wyoming also advanced to the final four.

Army sophomore flanker Trent Geisler put the ball across the try-line on a penalty play from 5 meters out to increase Army’s lead to 13-7 with one minute left in the half. However, just before time ran out St. Mary’s converted another penalty kick for points to cut Army’s lead to 13-10 at the half.

Army began to dominate more in the second half, controlling the scrums and rucks. With six minutes gone, Army scrummed down on St. Mary’s five-meter line and pushed the pack into the try-zone, allowing junior scrum-half Shannon Worthan to dive across for the try and an 18-10 lead.

Army kept the ball in their opponents half of the field for the majority of the half, but a few times St. Mary’s was able to kick into Army territory momentarily, and got one penalty close enough to the Army try-line to kick for points to cut Army’s lead to 18-13.

When Army realized how close the match had become, they raised the intensity and started hitting their opponents harder and fiercer than they had all day. They scored one try with eight minutes left on another penalty play from within 10 meters of the St. Mary’s try-zone. Freshman fly-half Liam Marmion took the ball in himself through two defenders for his first try. It was the nail in the coffin for St. Mary’s, who seemed to quit after that.

Marmion added another try on the last play of the match on a very similar play, and Worthan converted the kick to make the final score 30-13.