Hillsdale College club rugby finished its season with a playoff loss to Xavier University for the Allegheny Rugby Union West Conference title on Nov. 2, ending with a 4-1 record. 

“This was our first season in the conference, and we were playing much better teams than we’ve ever played before,” senior Brendan Henzel said. “We’ve done really well.”

Juniors Andrew Agbay and Israel “Izzy” Meyers both scored a try for the Chargers. 

Xavier scored twice early in the game, but Hillsdale rallied right before halftime, according to Henzel.  

“Andrew broke through their line at midfield and ran all the way for the touchdown, like 50 yards away,” Henzel said. “That was awesome for our first score.”

Freshman and student coach Charlie Hickey agreed.

“Andrew just shrugged off five or six different guys all trying to attack him,” Hickey said.

Immediately after halftime, Meyers scored a second try for the Chargers. 

“That was a great score, too,” Henzel said. “We had it at the five yard line, and we would just pick and go. A guy would just grab the ball and run as far as he could, with two guys pushing him again and again and again. Eventually, Izzy broke through.”

The Chargers held Xavier at 12 points for most of the game, but Xavier scored two more tries at the end, bringing the final score to 22-10, according to Hickey.

“I think we played better in that game than we’ve ever played,” Henzel said. “The new competition is much better, but we had that game for a second there before we let it slip.”

The Saturday game was Henzel’s last with the team before graduation. He is the only graduating senior on the team. 

“He’s been playing for years, and he’s a great player,” junior Elijah Pangrazio said. “It’ll be sad to lose him.”

Hickey said the rest of the team will be back next year.

“We’re still getting a lot of new guys joining or who want to play next semester or next year,” Hickey said. 

While rugby only played five official games this fall, they played four additional unofficial games, or friendlies. 

“We don’t really count friendlies, mostly because we try to play really good schools on our friendlies just to get the guys more experience,” Hickey said. “It doesn’t matter as much if we lose.” 

The rugby team is divided into forwards, who are the main hitters, and the backs, who focus more on running plays.

Pangrazio said junior captan Judah Newsom volunteered to train the backs this year.

“Judah stepped up to train our running backs, and that was super helpful, because Charlie was spearheading the tactics for the forwards,” Pangrazio said. “He runs conditioning, as well as organizing different plays and whatnot with the backs. Organization has just improved a lot.”

In the spring, Hickey said the team will play sevens, a variation of rugby with seven players instead of the usual 15. 

“It’s very fast paced, 15-minute games with more running and scoring and a lot less smashing,”  Hickey said. “It’s a good opportunity, especially for the new guys, to get a lot of game experience.”

Despite the playoff loss, Henzel said the rugby team has drastically improved overall since he joined as a freshman.

“It was very casual. The team as a whole definitely wasn’t as serious. We’ve had a couple coaches who have just been really great, and they’ve kind of pushed the team together,” Henzel said.