Flaco Guapo Media
Austin Vandiver, ASU intern, contributor
SAN ANGELO – On Saturday, October 27th, Angelo State Ram Rugby defeated University of Texas at Dallas Rugby at the ASU Intramural Complex by a final score of 40-27.
Ram Rugby’s victory marks their second win in Lonestar Conference play and boosts their season record to 4-2. 
Ram Rugby struck first, just 6 minutes into the match when Kevin Reid, graduate student, popped an offload up to John Raggio, sophomore inside centre, who burst his way into the try zone.
An offload is a pass made while being tackled or can be made from the ground after being tackled, as play in rugby is continuous and does not stop after each tackle. Raggio had two scores on the day.
“I felt like I had something to prove to the team this game,” said Raggio. “We had been lacking creativity in our past few matches in the back line and I feel we definitely got that back.”
UTD Rugby got on the board just 3 minutes later, after a “not releasing the ball” penalty resulted in a 3-point penalty kick from about 25-meters out.
In the 19th minute some physical running from Lucas Snitkin, junior lock, put the Rams in a good position to set up try number two for Raggio and a conversion kick from captain Cesar Escajeda, junior 8 man, put the Rams up 14-3 with 20 minutes left in the first half.
Heads up playing and exceptional hustle from Toby Timms, junior hooker, allowed him to steal 2 of UTD’s lineouts advancing ASU’s lead to 21-10 at the end of the half. A lineout is how play is restarted when the ball, or ball carrier goes “in to touch” or out of bounds. 
After half-time UTD Rugby came out energized and worked to chip away at ASU’s comfortable lead, punching their way in at the 43rd minute and converting their kick to minimize their deficit to just 4 points.
But ASU wasn’t going to settle down. Anthony Signorelli, junior fly-half, split two defenders to get into the try at the 47th minute and a missed conversion left ASU with 26 points to UTD’s 17.
With adept passing and bionic speed, Jeremy Sumners, junior outside centre, was able to pop a ball over to Jourden Stanley, senior fullback, who took it 65-meters down the touch line for his second try of the match, and with a successful conversion kick the Rams went up 33-22 with 14 minutes left in the second half.
UTD would fight to get one more try, but a missed conversion would only cut their deficit to 33-27. Cesar Escajeda would power through to get an easy try in the 77th minute as he capitalized on some confusion from the oppositions defense and he would convert his own try.
The Rams held on to that lead until the final whistle blew at the 80th minute, leaving Angelo State victorious over UTD 40-27.
This was the final conference match for the Rams this Fall semester, but conference play will pick back up in the spring, with the next match here in San Angelo on January 26th. ASU will take on Texas State.
ASU is hosting a tournament in accordance with Goodfellow Air Force Base, on Saturday, November 3rd, at 2 p.m. at the ASU Intramural Complex located off S. Jackson St. Admission is free and all are welcome.
