LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western ended their 2021-22 campaign with an emphatic 61-0 victory over United Rugby Club on Saturday at the Willoughby Community Park.

An early try from Genaro Gandolfo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was the only lead the Spartans would need to secure their fifth victory in BC Rugby Division 2 play.

After Gandolfo's match-winning try, the Spartans would enjoy a well-rounded display of scoring which was led by Lynden Duggan (Burnaby, B.C.), who scored three tries on the day. Alongside Duggan's performance, a brace from the ever-pacey Isaiah De Peiza (Edmonton) and standalone tries from Josh Halladay (White Rock, B.C.), Collin Lagat (Dallas, Texas), Max Darcy (Calgary), Jason Rodriguez, and Keegan Marengo (Johannesburg, South Africa) would round off an incredible day for TWU.
 
Jan Lourens (Smoky Lake, Alta.) went 3/11 from the tee in Saturday's windy conditions.

AS IT HAPPENED 
With Genaro Gandolfo breaking through United's line for an early try, the visitors stood tall for as long as they could hold before Isaiah De Peiza simply outpaced them. A total of four tries from Josh Halladay, Collin Lagat, and Lynden Duggan would be enough for the Spartans to take a commanding 34-0 lead over United after the first 40.

The Spartans got back to work quickly as a wonderful effort from Max Darcy was enough to vault TWU right back into the scoring column. Darcy was wonderful in the match, earning a well-deserved try after distributing tremendously throughout the duration of the complete 80 minutes.
 
Isaiah De Peiza and Duggan would add their second and third respective tries after Darcy's marker, leaving way for Rodriguez and Marengo to round off the match at 61-0 with a try each.

QUOTABLE
TWU Director of Rugby Andrew Evans 
"We were really disappointed with our performance last week. In our reflection, our leaders felt that our team was relying on individual performances, not a well-rounded team performance. Today was a result of hard work, and a cohesive team performance. A lot of players did a lot of positive things today and the load was shared when compared to last week against Surrey. It was a result of two focussed weeks with a lesson in the middle. I think we've turned a corner.
 
"Erik Niebuhr (Surrey, B.C.) was the captain in our past two weekends. We challenged him to lead us to a solid team performance today – and that's what we got. Players like Max Darcy played a solid 80 minutes, distributing the ball really well and contributing to a lot of tries. We just played a good team game – and that's based around some fairly new tactics. We're trying to attack space, and the boys found that space today.
 
On the 2021-22 season
"This is the first – true – full year of the program. I think we're beginning to find our stride this year. When we were starting our program, people were asking us if we wanted to play in the third division, saying that we would eventually work our way up to the better teams in five to ten years. I wasn't satisfied with that – I believe in pressing into our program's potential with hard work, and I think the men really did that this year. Our group of 18–21-year-olds did everything they could to become what we wanted to as our competitiveness grew each day. Picking on that challenge as a group of young men against some of the strongest university teams went a long way for our men. It proved our guts, and our hunger. It proved that we won't back down from some of the tallest tasks we had to face as a team.
 
"In the second half of the season, a lot of our younger guys made massive strides, giving themselves some points in our team selection for big games. The boys took on a massive challenge this season, and doing what we did three years into our program has been encouraging."

NOTABLE
•    TWU's season in BC Rugby Division 2 wraps up at a favourable 5-1 record, with their overall record between various competition ends at 6-9.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

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