Men's rugby used a stifling defense to earn a hard-fought win on the road against Palmer College of Chiropractic 19-14 Saturday afternoon in Davenport, Iowa.  The Lions had to come from behind twice in the contest, which was ended 10 minutes early when things started to get a bit chippy between the teams.
 
Palmer College jumped ahead in the opening minutes on a try and conversion and most of the first half was played in the Lindenwood end of the pitch, but the Lions were able to deny several scoring chances to keep the game in reach.  Lindenwood finally broke into Palmer territory and capitalized with a try from hooker John Holden, knotting the score at seven.
 
It appeared that the Lions offense would take the lead, but several mistakes and bad decisions wasted the opportunities.  Just when it appeared that the two teams would go the break with just a single try each, Palmer scored with five minutes remaining to take a 14-7 advantage.  But Lindenwood quickly responded when "Man-of-the-Match" Sebastian Kalm broke through the defense and off-loaded the ball to halfback Nicholas Markowski for a try that sent the two teams into halftime tied 14-14. 
 
For the first 30 minutes of the second half, neither offense could break through until the Lions took the lead on a brilliant individual effort from fullback Lunaile Tshuma.  After kicking the first two conversions of the match, Tshuma was unable to convert his own try, but Lindenwood still held a 19-14 advantage.  Moments later, the game was called giving the Lions the victory, which improved their record to 2-0 on the young season.
 
Lindenwood gets a weekend off before returning to the pitch for two friendlies September 26 at home.  The Lions second XV will face the St. Louis Royals at 5:30 p.m., followed by the first XV against the St. Louis Bombers at 7:30 p.m., with both games at Hunter Stadium on the Lindenwood campus.