By Sadie Shields

Unlike the gray Humboldt skies on Saturday afternoon, the Humboldt men’s rugby team saw sunshine with their dominant win over the San Francisco State University (SFSU) Gators.

The physicality and speed of the match tested the team’s trust, resilience and their ability to adjust, but the Lumberjacks scored more and more in the second half, securing a 60-34 victory.

Freshman Keelan Tagoaigot had a hat trick, running an arc in the first and second half towards the corners.

“He did really well, and ran well with the ball,” team captain and senior Miquel Cornejo said.  “We had a bunch of new players come in, so they did really well stepping up and filling in those shoes when people got hurt.” 

Injuries throughout the match caused a few changeups as San Francisco began teaming up on the Jacks’ bigger players.

“When we get those injuries on the field, it’s just the next man up,” Cornejo said. “It’s a brotherhood, we hold each other accountable, so the minute someone gets hurt, we expect you to fill those shoes and do your job to the best of your ability.”

The physical nature of the game created more tension between the teams as the match continued, especially as the Jacks began to take the lead. The Gators got more aggressive as the match drew closer to a close.

“The tensions were definitely rising all game,” freshman Jonah Triatayllou said. “It was a chippy game and we were both getting after it… in the end when time finished, I was trying to end the game, just finish it, and I kicked it out. One of their guys decided to give me a late shot.”

Triatayllou was grateful for the support when his team protected him when a rival player got a late hit, after the ball was kicked out of play to end the game.

“I’m lucky and blessed to have teammates who have my back and were able to get in his face and not let me just take that hit,” Triatayllou said. “We have some enforcers to go show them that they can’t just do whatever they want.” 

Despite the intensity of the game throughout, Triatayllou said that the turning point came at halftime, after the team regrouped and focused on correcting mistakes. 

“I think at half, just by holding each other accountable and realizing our mistakes and what we were doing wrong, we were able to build off those mistakes,” Triatayllou said. “I think we really capitalized on their mistakes after we fixed ours. It just made us able to play good, clean rugby.”

Even with the win, Cornejo acknowledged there’s still a lot the team could improve on. Some things they’d like to focus on is getting better at protecting the ball and how to react when getting tackled by multiple players.

“I feel like everyone on the team knows that we could have performed better, but after our first half we found ourselves. We found our systems and started working on it,” Cornejo said. “I’m glad to have these boys as my brothers, they have my back and I got theirs.”

Sadie is a junior communications major, journalism minor at Cal Poly Humboldt who has an interest in covering and taking photos for sports and wildlife journalism, and a slight interest in breaking news. She can be reached at sls331@humboldt.edu.