Santa Fe Rugby Continues Winning Ways

Santa Fe Rugby Club’s Santos built upon last week’s 60-36 shellacking of Rio Grande Rugby league-leaders Albuquerque Aardvarks with a 50-20 defeat of the El Paso Scorpions Saturday at Santa Fe’s Municipal Recreation Complex. A win in a return match in El Paso April 15 would ensure Santa Fe a berth in the Southwest Rugby Union playoffs, featuring the top teams in Arizona and New Mexico.

Santa Fe got off to a hot start, scoring 31 unanswered points in the first 40-minute half. Five-point ties were touched down by Elijah Naranjo, a small college All-American from New Mexico Tech; Jared Skillman, Ryan Means, Leon Wilson, plus a second by Naranjo. Leon Wilson, a South Africa native, added three two-point conversion kicks.

The Scorpions lived up to their reputation for mental toughness by scoring the first three tries of the second half. But the Scorps couldn’t buy a conversion kick, and successive tries by Milaan Van Wyk, also an NMT All-American, gave the home side a comfortable 45-15 lead following Wilson’s successful conversions.

Perennial standout Cory Micander scored a well-deserved try to close Santa Fe’s scoring binge at 50, making a late try by the Scorpions a moot point.