Grand Rapids, Mich. — The Aquinas College men's rugby team started their 15's season on Saturday (Sep. 14) with a home contest with the visiting Purdue Boilermakers. Due to the weather, the contest was held with four 20 minute quarters. The action started quickly for the Saints as they laid down their own set of tracks. AQ kept its wheels turning as the maroon locomotive kept offloading at the try-line station. As the final whistle blew, Aquinas had another explosive season start as they took the contest 68-0.

Aquinas 68, Purdue 0

The physicality of this contest started at the initial kick as both teams looked to establish a lead. Purdue had a touch too much physicality as a Boilermaker earned an early yellow card in the fourth minute. 

The Saints now held a numbers advantage and jumped to capitalize on it. Jacob Easterling earned the first try for the Saints in the fifth minute, as Archie Fleming completed the conversion to up the Saints to an early 7-0 lead.

AQ had punched their way to the try line and laid down their own set of tracks while doing it as they returned four minutes later as Zach Bester broke through this time. Once again, Fleming made due on the conversion. 

Aquinas's tracks were red hot as they continued to run down the pitch. Blake Isenhoff set the pace as he made multiple defenders miss as he broke through the try line just two minutes after Bester. Fleming took aim and collected another conversion.

Soon after Eisenhoff's try, the Boilermakers returned to full strength as the yellow card came to expire. The contest became more hotly contested as both teams battled for possession.

Aquinas stood against Purdue with a 21-0 advantage as the contest neared the first quarter. Nathan Shaffer powered his way through the opposition in the 19th minute to give the Saints a last minute try, Fleming pulled through with another conversion attempt.

After the quarter break both teams returned to the pitch. The Saints roared back to life early to begin the next installment of play as Schaffer had a stunning run and offload combo that was finished past the try line by Gavin Thompson. Fleming went on to make the contest 35-0 with the conversion.

Easterling returned in for another try just four minutes after Thompson's, and with another Fleming conversion the Saints stood with a 42-0 advantage in just the 26th minute.

The Saints kept chugging as just two minutes later, Thomas Allsopp made several moves and finessed the ball up the pitch, here Allsop offloaded to Trayvon Mathis who drove the ball in for the remainder of the distance. Mathis's try and an unsuccessful conversion put the Saints to 47-0.

In the 32nd minute, Allsop made another run as he capitalized on a line-out mistake by the visitors. Easterling capitalized on the positioning by Allsop's play and as he drove the ball down, he had earned a hat trick. With another conversion by Fleming, the Saints were now up 54-0. Here the game entered half-time.

After the half, the state of the game returned to a heavy contest.

AQ's scoring drives were slowed but were not stopped. Before the end of the contest the Saints went on to score two more times. George Kilsby with a conversion by Jack O'Malley upped the Saints to 61-0.

Fleming went on to find the final try of the contest with his first in the 73rd minute, here O'Malley notched another conversion. 

Aquinas stood at 68-0 with time winding down. For the remainder of the contest the Boilermakers were knocking on the try line door, but they would not find any entry as Aquinas had shut them out for the contest and would not allow them in. 

With the final whistle, AQ had cemented their explosive home season opener with a shutout. 

The Saints derailed the Boilermakers,  68-0.

Here is what Head Coach Lance Hohaia had to say on the days performance, "Overall, I was pleased with many aspects of our performance. While there are still areas for improvement, the most satisfying takeaway was our strong defensive effort, and the seamless integration of our new players. We're excited for next week as we head into our first conference game."

By the Numbers

• Easterling contributes three trys for a hat trick on the day
• Bester, Eisenhoff, Schaffer, Thompson, Mathis, Thompson, and Fleming all take part with a try each
• Fleming goes seven of eight on conversions, as O'Malley goes two for two

Up Next

The Saints will return to home play at Highland Park on Saturday (Sep. 21) with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff.