Photo by Nick Henthorn
The Wheeling women’s rugby team is pictured with their national championship after returning to Wheeling University on Sunday.
WHEELING — When the Wheeling University women’s rugby team (12-0) was first established back in May, it was a continuation of an already strong rugby tradition at Wheeling University. On Saturday night, the Cardinals added their own page to the history books, ending their historic inaugural season with a National Championship, defeating Southern Nazarene University 58-17. Six different players scored tries on the night as the Cardinals completed their Cinderella inaugural season.
The team flew back into Wheeling on Sunday, and arrived back on-campus at 2 p.m. that same day to a welcoming crowd of friends, fans and faculty.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” head coach Ken Pape said Sunday. “Back in May when I met with Wheeling about putting this all together, they were just super supportive. Everything that we talked about, they came through on, which is a great feeling. I told the team that if we did these things, I promise that we will have an opportunity for a national championship. I know that saying stuff like that in your first year is kind of tough to hear, but as we were going on, the more the university started believing. Coming home to a police escort and all the fans and other students, what can you say, it’s a great feeling.”
Wheeling’s offense has led the way throughout the season, averaging 54.4 points per game, and the offense was on full display once again. It began with a Penalty Kick as Bella Gullatta teed the ball up from the middle of the field. She kicked it through the uprights and the Cardinals held the early 3-0 advantage and were just getting started. They would score their first try of the night seven minutes later, putting the ball in the hands of their captain Alexis Dallas. Dallas would run through four different Storm tackles and get into the try zone. Gullatta added the conversion kick and Wheeling was up 10-0 just 10 minutes into the match.
Both defenses held strong over the next 10 minutes, before the Cardinals would once again get things started.
Wheeling drew a penalty from five meters out, setting up a restart, and put the ball in the hands of Joelle Taylor. Taylor would use her power running to get into the try zone and put the ball down and extended the Cardinal lead to 15-0 after Gullatta missed the conversion kick. On the ensuing possession, the Cardinal’s offense was right back at it as they pitched the ball outside. Abbi Siller would get the ball to Liz Sinatra, who handed off to Alli Davis. Davis took it the rest of the way and touched the ball down before Gullatta redeemed herself with the conversion kick to make it a 24-0 Cardinal lead.
The team went into the locker room with Wheeling holding a 24-12 lead and looking to extend that into the second half.
Nine minutes into the second half, the Cardinal’s defense would create the opportunity, forcing a Storm turnover. The ball bounced into the hands of Tocarra Nelson, who pitched to Tamzin Boyce streaking down the sidelines. Boyce sprinted to the try zone, and a Gullatta conversion kick sailed through to make it a 31-12 Wheeling lead. Wheeling’s offense would put it away over the next 13 minutes, scoring four tries that would seal the game.
“They were incredible,” Pape said. “The energy in that game, the comments that we kept making to each other was ‘We’ve got to bully the bully.’ That team’d been bullying teams all year and the last couple years, and we went out there and we bullied the bully. They did everything that we could’ve asked for. I’m super proud of them, they make me feel blessed to be able to coach them and I’m really thankful for that.”
As she has done all season, it would be Bella Gullatta who led the way for the Cardinals, scoring 18 points on the night. She scored the final try for the team in the 75th minute, while going 5-8 on conversion kicks and 1-1 on penalty kicks on the day. The Cardinals had two different multi-try scorers on the day, with Tamzin Boyce and Jemmley Rivera each getting on the board twice in the effort. It was Rivera’s first career multi-try game, while Boyce scored multiple tries for the third time this season.
The other three tries came courtesy of Alexis Dallas, Joelle Taylor, and Alli Davis, who each finished with five points on the night. The final points came from Marissa Hudson, who made her only penalty kick to finish with three points to round out the night.
“It’s easy to coach people that have a drive,” Pape said. “When things got a little tough during the game, what we looked back on- we’re not just playing for us, we’re playing for the administrators back home, we’re playing for the school, we’re playing for our families and most importantly we’re playing for each other.”
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