Biola rugby handily defeated Point Loma Nazarene University on Saturday afternoon 41-12 securing not only the team’s first home victory, but their first ever official Southern California Rugby Football Union win.
The Mighty Men — the club’s official nickname — were led by captain and flyhalf Anthony Cantu who scored a match-high 16 points. He converted a try, penalty kick and four after-try conversions en route to earning “Man of the Match” honors.
“After a close loss to Westmont [College] in our last match, we came out with a lot of energy,” Cantu said. “There was definitely a feeling of wanting to prove to ourselves and to our fans that we can play better than we had against [Westmont].”
Biola scores early and fails to lose lead
Biola kept the ball in Point Loma’s end for the majority of the first half, maintaining possession in the early half and scoring first — a lead they never surrendered. Sophomore inside center Kyle Lee got Biola on the board about 10 minutes in, followed by Cantu who scored midway through the half to make it 12-0.
Point Loma fought hard in the latter part of the first half, as the score read 15-12 at the midway point with a Cantu penalty kick and two PLNU tries coming late in the half.
“We came out really fired up in the second half determined not to let our lead slip away,” Cantu said.
Biola never relented, scoring all 26 second-half points.
Biola dominates second half, score four tries
Junior eight man Andrew Eichler scored two second-half tries, along with freshman winger Kenny Lowry and junior outside center Troy Coleman who both scored tries of their own. Coleman broke for a 60-yard run on his try, the longest of the match.
“It was great to see us finally live up to our potential as a rugby team,” Cantu said. “We have the ability to score a lot of points and to play shutdown defense and we really showed that against Point Loma.”
The Mighty Men will renew what has already become a heated rivalry with Azusa Pacific University next Saturday, Feb. 23 at Azusa starting at 1 p.m.
“Given the history between our two clubs, it goes without saying that it should be our fiercest match of the year,” Cantu said. “We'd love support from any fans who are willing to make the journey to Azusa.”
