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'Runners rugby enjoys Auraria homecoming
Power trio lifts Metro to overwhelming 42-3 win over Mesa State
By Steve Puterski
sputersk@mscd.edu

Photo by Jeremy Billis • jbills@mscd.edu Bobby Mosaic, rises into the sky to receive an inbound pass against Mesa State Sept. 24 at Auraria Field. In their first home game in three years, Metro beat Mesa State 42-3.

Metro men’s rugby played its first home game in three years on Sept. 24, defeating visiting Mesa State in a 42-3 blowout.

Metro jumped to an early 12-0 lead in the game before Mesa State scored its only points. The Roadrunners then scored 30 unanswered points thanks to a combination of speed and power.

Zach Peterson, Jericho Dorsey and David Deagle scored two tries apiece for Metro, while Zach Dickerson and Doug James each added a try. Tries in rugby are similar to touchdowns in football.

Junior Bobby Mosaic and freshman Scott Lentz led Metro’s forwards up front with strong play. They set the tone by dishing out hard hits and using physical line play to keep the Mavericks on the run.

“We were able to keep the intensity the whole game,” Peterson said.

Head coach Gregg McCorkle, in his fourth season at Metro, was pleased with his team’s performance.

“We played very well, ” McCorkle said. “(But) we have yet to reach our potential.”

The squad has rebounded after losing key players from last year’s team, which was a step away from reaching the club national tournament for Division II. The team went undefeated in the Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union South Division, but fell to Regis in the playoffs. Regis went on to take sixth place at nationals, while Metro had to regroup and focus on getting over the hump and playing its way into the national tournament.

McCorkle said Metro has a lot of talent with its new players, whom he hopes can help lift the team to a new level.

“It was a better atmosphere and more fun,” Lentz said about his first collegiate match.

Oddly enough, the new players have experienced something most of the team has not – a home game.

For the past three seasons, the rugby team was homeless because the Auraria Higher Education Center said the fields took too much of a beating. AHEC controls the fields and is not a part of the college.

The team practiced at various locations around the Denver area and traveled to all its games.

“It was sweet to play on campus for the first time in three years,” Mosaic said.

The ’Runners’ temporary home on the baseball field is the result of a meeting McCorkle had this summer with Metro President Stephen Jordan and athletic director Joan McDermott. The team hopes to find a permanent home on one of the practice fields, but it will have to wait for a decision from the administration.

The ’Runners’ next opponent on Oct. 1 is still to be determined because of a cancellation. Metro’s final home game of the season is Oct. 8 versus Western State.

To join the squad, students can show up to the ’Runners practice every Tuesday and Thursday at Cuernavaca Park on Little Raven and 20th streets from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.