In front of a large crowd of families and friends, the No. 1 ranked BYU rugby team continued its dominance as it easily handled the University of Utah rugby team 76-31 in the 2015 Wasatch Cup at Ute Soccer Field Saturday afternoon. It’s the second time this season that BYU had defeated Utah by over 25 points. BYU beat Utah 50-22 on Jan. 24 in St. George.
The Utes scored first on a penalty kick to take an early 3-0 lead. Ryan Blaster scored soon after for BYU. With a Jonathan Linehan successful kick, BYU took the lead, 7-3, at the 10-minute mark and never looked back. Three minutes later, Ara Elkington increased the lead for BYU. A turnover by the visitors led to the Utes scoring a try and cutting the lead to 12-10 after 15 minutes.
In the 26th minute, BYU displayed its dominance as well as why it is the No. 1 ranked team in the country as it reeled off 28 points in a 14-minute span. Jordan Lowry scored a try and with the successful kick, the lead went to 19-10.
An overall great team play in the 29th minute led to Seki Kofe scoring a try to increase the lead to 26-10 after a successful kick. Lowry scored another try to give BYU a 23-point lead after a good kick.
Just before halftime, a Utah turnover led to Lowry converting a try and made it three scored tries in the first half as the Lone Peak High alum helped give BYU, with a successful kick, a 40-10 lead at the half.
BYU continued its dominance in the second half as Kody Thompson scored a try to make it 45-10. The Utes answered back with a try of their own, but just as fast as the Utes scored, BYU responded back, thanks to Josh Whippy’s try to make it 50-17. Elkington converted his second try on the day in the 59th minute to make it a 40-point BYU rugby lead, the biggest lead of the day.
Utah scored two tries in a three-minute span to make it 57-31 with just over 10 minutes to play. But BYU finished the game with three scored tries in the last 10 minutes with Joseph Nicholls (70 feet with a successful kick), Thompson (72 feet) and Ben Keith (76 feet with successful kick). The Wasatch Cup remains BYU's property, thanks to a 76-31 beating of Utah.
With the win, BYU remains undefeated this season with a 9-0 record. Two more in-state rivals visit the No.1 ranked team this coming week as UVU and Utah State face BYU on March 25 and 28 respectively.
Xoel CÀrdenas is a writer with Deseret News sports. He is also a columnist at SB Nation, the largest sports blog site in the country, where he covers FC Barcelona. Follow him on Twitter @XoelCardenas.