The ASU men's rugby club has identified this season as its "best chance" for advancing to the national tournament in the spring.
The Sun Devils took the first step toward realizing their potential last week when celebrating a 35-5 win over NAU at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
"It was a great foundation for our team just to see where we are," senior flanker Maciej Wrobel said. "To beat them the way we did shows how far we've come since last year."
Scoring for ASU were sophomore wing Taku Nagamatsu, senior fly half Andrew Lebowitz, junior wing Brent Avila and senior fullback Tony Markham. NAU's lone try came from Jeremy Cochran. The Sun Devils ran away with things on the strength of a second-half surge.
"After we got over our first-game jitters, we took over," Wrobel said. "It was 14-5 at the half, and then we scored three more tries, and basically dominated them."
ASU utilized its big forwards to break holes in NAU's defense. Nagamatsu marked tries in both the first and second half. The scoring was opened with a penalty try from Nagamatsu, followed by a Lebowitz try.
"We tried to pound it out with the forwards and tire them out," Wrobel said. "Then we let the speed take over."
ASU will return to action at 7 p.m. Friday when hosting Scottsdale at the band field. Admission is free.
Reach the reporter at cameron.eickmeyer@asu.edu.
