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Rugby beats ASU, win conference championship

Wildcats explode for 31 second-half points

The Wildcats club rugby team not only beat Arizona State for the 12th straight time, but also won its third conference championship in the last four years.

"It is great," senior front row Barney Enos said. "It is good that we met this goal, now we can focus on regionals and go onto the next goal."

Arizona, which trailed at halftime, ran off 31 unanswered points to beat the Sun Devils by a score of 43-17. The Wildcats regular season ends with a record of 9-3 overall and 7-1 in the SoCal Conference

UA took an early 7-0 lead with a try and a conversion from junior Mike Martinez in the first six minutes of action, in Tempe, Saturday. Arizona State's forwards, though, held off the Wildcats throughout the rest of the first half.

"ASU handed us everything they had in the first half," head coach Dave Sitton said.

The second half was a different story for the Wildcats.

"It seemed like in the first half we almost played down to their level," Enos said. "In the second half we played our game and we were able to get the ball to the outside."

The Wildcats second half dominance was led by tries from Martinez, senior Dan Duncan, Jon Gray and sophomore Mike McCartney. Martinez and McCartney each had two tries in the game.

In the first half, the Sun Devils were on the attacking end of the field for the majority of the half. That changed after halftime, as the Wildcats kept ASU's attackers at bay for all but about five minutes.

"The difference between the first and second half was that in the second half we just played a lot better and ASU seemed to be fatigued," Sitton said.

It was the final regular season game for three Wildcat seniors, all of whom play the lock position - Robby Colville, Rob Ternes and Duncan.

The win did come at a cost for Arizona, as the team was struck by injuries when junior hooker Nick Kenny was injured in the first half. The injury to Kenny left the Wildcats without seven starters for the second half of the game.

"What we need to strive for during the next two weeks is really a matter of getting our team together and re-assembling our team." Sitton said.

The Wildcats are supposed to have all seven starters return for the Sweet 16 regional at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. on April 14 and 15. The Wildcats opponent is unknown.

During the next two weeks in preparing for the regional Enos said, "What we need to do is to get back to the basics and get ready for whoever we face."