For two consecutive games, the women’s club rugby team has racked up over 100 points and held their opponents to 10 points or less.

On Saturday the team traveled to Oswego, where they shutout the home team 132-0. With a total of 234 points for and 10 points against in the last two games, Buffalo State is gaining momentum and they don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

Senior captain Mary Sica was proud of the way her teammates played against Oswego. With the rain playing a big role in the game, the forwards saw a lot of action.

“There was a lot of close balls with the forwards, but when we got it out to the backs we ran straight there every time.”

Sica said her team only had one penalty the entire game. By halftime, the score was 85-0 with the Bengals overpowering Oswego on offense and stepping up to make tackles defensively.

“All of them were very impressive,” Sica said about her rookie teammates that stepped in to play in the second half.

Coach Jenn Jenkinson made two substitutions in the first half and an additional 16 in the second half. She said that after the officials granted her team unlimited substitutions, she wanted to give as many players playing time as she could.

“We got 18 [substitutions] in, and still ended up winning by a sizeable margin.”

Many of the substitutes in the game were rookies or less experienced players, who managed to put up 47 points against Oswego’s starters and maintain the shutout.

“I think that says a lot about our rookies and our developing players, that they can step right in and kind of keep our level of intensity and pace up in the game,” Jenkinson said. “They did great. I mean the fact that we kept our defense strong so zero points were scored [by Oswego], I think is a testament to the level of defensive skills our rookies have in addition to offense.”

Freshman winger Carlee Cockrell changed positions to fly-half in the second half of the game. Cockrell had rugby experience from high school. She started for the Bengals in the second game of the season and has been actively contributing to the team’s success ever since.

“It has been awesome,” Cockrell said. “I already feel very connected to the team. Everyone wants to improve their game and work together; it’s great.”

Many of the players didn’t expect to put up as many points as they did on Saturday, including Cockrell.

“We didn’t know what Oswego’s game was like,” Cockrell said. “So we just wanted to go in strong from the beginning and it became clear that we would rule the game.”

The women’s team has a bye this week. While they won’t be playing a regular season game, a developmental scrimmage is scheduled for this weekend.

In two weeks, they will face what Jenkinson believes will be their toughest competition, Division I Syracuse.

“I’m confident that we can keep it up, but I’m also a little nervous that the girls may have gotten comfortable getting these large margins and big points put on the board,” Jenkinson said. “We need to stay humble about this and give this game [Syracuse] everything we’ve got because these are the kind of games we want to win.”

The developmental scrimmage will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. on the field next to R-14 parking lot, followed by the men’s game against Fredonia at 1 p.m.

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