On Saturday, Buffalo State’s men’s club rugby team took on Geneseo at home on a rainy afternoon, coming out on top, 14-7, and moving to 2-0.

The game was fairly clean as only three yellow cards were handed out by officials – two to Buffalo State and one to Geneseo. The first yellow card was handed to Kyle Arena, a fifth-year senior. Arena was carded late in the first half, just the second of his Buffalo State rugby career.

“I had to,” Arena explained. “If I didn’t, they probably would have scored.”

Buffalo State’s defense held strong though, killing off the penalty and keeping the game even at zero going into halftime.

The field conditions were deteriorated by heavy downpours and adjustments had to be made. Players had trouble keeping their footing and completing passes, making for a scoreless first half.

“We started off playing to the level of Geneseo,” senior August Edwards said. “After halftime, we came out with more aggression and that’s what we needed from the beginning. We weren’t depending on each other at first; we were all trying to be a big playmaker.”

Early in the second half, Brandon Perez energized the Bengals with a go-ahead score.

Third-year player Justin Brzyski was carded midway through the second half and Geneseo capitalized, tying the score at seven with about 15 minutes left in the game.

As the game wound down, it looked as though the teams would draw. Then, Anthony Harris scored to give the Bengals a 12-7 lead. Trevor Wild converted on the two-point kick to give the Bengals a 14-7 lead.

The Blue Knights (Geneseo) made one final push, but senior Christian Feickert made a game-saving tackle five meters away from a Geneseo goal to secure the win.

“The weather made the game depend on the forwards for both teams, making the game real physical,” Brzyski said. “Being so early in the season, the team performed exceptionally well. We still have areas to improve on for Cortland next week.”

“We need to be stronger defensively, we were weak in tackling today,” head coach Rob Jenkinson said. “Absolutely, the rain played a huge part in it.” Jenkinson labeled next week’s game against the Cortland Red Dragons “the hardest of the year,” and said “anytime you play Cortland at Cortland it’s going to be tough.”