In a physical test on the road, men's rugby earned a 48-7 victory over the Kansas City RFC Saturday afternoon in Kansas City, Missouri. Seven different Lions crossed the try line and Matteo Peignon booted three of the four successful Lindenwood conversions in the match.

Lindenwood took an early lead after recovering a KC knock-on after the opening kickoff. Carl Kawodza immediately took the ball wide and offloaded to a supporting Tadiwanashe Kadango who finished the job. The conversion made it 7-0 Lions.
 
Lindenwood struck again 11 minutes into the game when Lautaro Soto Ansay charged down a KC kick attempt. As the ball sputtered on the pitch, he kicked it down field off the ground, chased and gathered the ball, and dotted down for five points. Another conversion gave the Lions a 14-0 advantage.
 
Lindenwood drove deep into KC territory and struck again after a hard dummy line by Kadango froze the defense just long enough for Soto Ansay to catch a flat ball and offload to Emilio Carranza who scored his first try of the day to extend the lead to 19-0.  
 
Peignon continued to add on his spectacular day when he picked the ball off the back of the scrum and hit a perfectly timed chip kick over the defending backline. After a favorable bounce, the ball settled in front of him. He scooped it up and scored under the post for a 26-0 score, a margin the Lions took into halftime.  
 
Midway through the second half, the KCRFC drove to within 10-meters of scoring, but Asher Webb aggressively stole the ball from an attacking player. Before the attacking team realized, the ball moved hands to Connor Devos who offloaded in time to a supporting Phil Tracey. Tracey used his skills in the open field to dummy a would-be tackler and hit Daniel Komorowski, who outran the defense for a 60-meter try to increase the Lindenwood lead to 31-0.  
 
Kansas City finally broke the shutout after capitalizing on a Lions penalty that pushed the defenders back on their own goal line. KCRFC executed a quick tap, and some supportive rucking pushed the ball into the zone for the only try of the match for the club and a 31-7 deficit.
 
Lindenwood scored the final 17-points of the game unanswered. Asher Webb was rewarded for his previous efforts when he found himself five-meters from the line with only a back defending him. Jeremy Zwick quickly identified the mismatch and fed the ball to Webb, who bashed his way for the score. A Lochlan Charley conversion pushed the lead to 36-7. 
 
Carl Kawodza rounded out the match with back-to-back tries. The first came after he chased down a well-executed chip kick from Lochlan Charley. The second came when Kawodza used his athleticism to split the defensive backline off a scrum. He took a hard inside line and left the defense grasping for air as he raced passed them. After giving the fullback a quick studder step, he was off to the races to finish the try for the final 48-7 margin. 
 
Player Thought: 
Captain Joaquin Gonzalez Fontan:

"We started off frantic today but settled down nicely and stuck to our game plan. I was proud of the way we faced adversity early in the match and I am proud of the ways the boys worked together to get the outcome we wanted. We have some work to do going into next week, but I think we started the season off in a great way to build upon." 
 
Other Matches: 
Lindenwood faced the KCRFC Second XV side and raced to a 52-3 victory. William Groves was a standout in running the attack while Terrell Hopson was a force defensively.  
 
The Lions also played a series of 10's matches at Maryville University, winning all three. Luke Schaefer and Karl Romming where dominant at the breakdown while Tyrese Prescod was a great change of pace attacking from the backline. 
 
Coach Thought: 
Assistant Coach Zach Thorum:

"It was great to be able to get the guys on the road and back on the pitch playing rugby for the first time this year. Between the two matches against KCRFC and a friendly versus Maryville today, we had 48 guys get significant minutes playing rugby. I don't believe there is any other program that can get that many guys playing on a weekend." 

What's Next:
The Lions travel to Omaha, Nebraska to face the Omaha RFC September 24.
 
Scoring Summary: 
1' Lindenwood Try Tadiwanashe Kadango 5-0 
1' Lindenwood Conversion Matteo Peignon 7-0 
10' Lindenwood Try Lautaro Soto Ansay 12-0 
11' Lindenwood Conversion Matteo Peignon 14-0 
28' Lindenwood Try 19-0 Matteo Peignon 
33' Lindenwood Try Matteo Peignon 24-0 
33' Lindenwood Conversion 26-0 Matteo Peignon 
57' Lindenwood Try Daniel Komorowski 31-0 
60' KCRFC Try 31-5 
60' KCRFC Conversion 31-7 
63' Lindenwood Try Asher Webb 36-7 
74' Lindenwood Try Carl Kawodza 41-7 
74' Lindenwood Conversion Lochlan Charley 43-7 
80' Lindenwood Try Carl Kawodza 48-7 
 
 
Lineup: 

1. Chad Tinney – 52' Asher Webb 
2. Christopher Wallace – 53' Giovanni Agostini 
3. Hailama Anakalea – 53' Connor Devos 
4. Le'Donn Mathis – 64' Neil Milczarek 
5. Vladislav Sotnikov  
6. Joaquin Gonzalez Fontan – 68' Jack Johnson 
7. Philip Tracey -  
8. Dylan Fortune – 64' Terrell Hopson  
9. Matteo Peignon – 63' Jeremy Zwick  
10. Lochlan Charley 
11. Carl Kawodza 
12. Tadiwanashe Kadango – 62' John Rink 
13. Lautaro Soto Ansay 
14. Daniel Komorowski 
15. Emilio Carranza