BELMONT, N.C. - After a tough, dominant win over rival Citadel a couple of weeks ago, the Lander Men's Rugby team traveled to North Carolina to take on their second ranked opponent of the season in the Belmont Abbey Crusaders. However, the #20 Crusaders would prove to be too much as they scored early and often to shutout the Bearcats by a score of 46-0.

Belmont Abbey would get on the board early with a penalty kick from a Lander penalty at the breakdown. That was followed shortly thereafter by a try on the ensuing possession. The conversion would make it 10-0, Belmont Abbey early.

Belmont Abbey would score another concerted try to extend their lead 17-0. Penalties around the breakdown resulted in a yellow card to Eric Burkett. Belmont Abbey gets on the scoreboard again while Lander are down a man with a converted penalty kick to make it 20-0. 

An additional penalty against Lander put Max Smith in the box and the Bearcats are down two men which The Crusaders would make good use of and score two unanswered tries to halftime score 32-0 in favor of the home side.

The second half was a totally different match as the Bearcats back-line would steady up and only allow two tries to be scored to make the final score 46-0.

Coach Billings had this to say after the match, "Coach Whitrow is an experienced coach with a lot of international experience and he had his men ready for us tonight, they reflected his coaching well and played accordingly. We put our backs against the wall with some early penalties and let them build momentum early. Once we were down two players it was difficult to keep possession on attack and the numbers to defend their back line. I was proud of our men tonight despite the score, we were down two captains in Tomás Mussi, who is playing for his country's senior 7s team, & Hayden Bullwinkle as well as other key players to injury. Despite that, the younger players really stepped up. Max Smith at ten played really well, Carey Cortes played a very good match at outside center, Eric Burkett had one of his best matches, and senior Cam Smith was strong all night in the back line. In our pack Ethan Syswerda continued to have to strong defense and Trey Runck played inspired rugby. BA played a great match and exploited a few things repeatedly that we can definitely shore up for our rematch in November, hats off to them, we look forward to round two."

The Bearcats of the match were Trey Runck and captain Cam Smith. 

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