Robert Roman (left) offers Kyle Gates (center) an escape from Gonzaga's tackling force. NIC's lack of players resulted in a loss on Oct. 8.
The North Idaho College rugby club continued their season with a 24-10 road loss to the Gonzaga University club team on Saturday, Oct. 8.
“Its was a tough loss, but I’m really proud of our guys,” said coach Joe Malloy. “They gave it everything they had the whole time against a deeper and obviously more experienced Gonzaga team.”
With Gonzaga scoring a try and a penalty kick early into the first half of the game, the Cardinals had to battle back midway through the match.
Captain Steven Populus found a weak point in the Gonzaga defense when he ran the ball in for a try and made two difficult kicks to take the lead to 10-8 going into halftime.
It boiled down to a contest of strength versus numbers and the 30-man Gonzaga team overwhelmed the 16-man Cardinals team with fresh substitute players throughout the match.
NIC’s small number of players limited them to only one substitute player rotating through the team throughout the entire game.
“It’s very hard for a small North Idaho college team to compete with a huge Gonzaga University team,” Populus said. “I know for a fact we had them worried. I could see it.”
Populus credited a lot of effort to Alex Murren for his performance over the game, but said the whole team did an excellent job.
“The numbers were not on their side,” Populus said. “If we get more players, I think we can compete with anyone.”
The Cardinals only have two more games left in the fall season. They have a home game versus Whitman College on Nov. 5, which the location has yet to be announced, and an away game against the Washington State University-Pullman’s “B” side team on Nov. 12.
