The Waterloo Warriors men's rugby team moves to 1-4 on the season after a 49-8 rout against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Saturday at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. 
 
"It was a great experience for the guys to play in a big venue and get the first win of the season," said Head Coach Luke Demeter. "I am pleased with the heart and effort we have put into the season thus far despite going 0-4 to start the season, but we have to keep things in perspective down the stretch. With a short break before our next game we will focus on rest, recovery and our next task," commented Demeter.

The Warriors began the game strong, keeping the ball from the Varsity Blues and putting them under pressure, threatening to score early. Toronto capitalized on a Warrior turnover and marched down the field to slot a penalty goal and take an early 3-0 lead.  From there Waterloo responded quickly and often with a series of long gain line breaks.

The Warriors responded quickly and would score their first try of the game after a great individual play by rookie flyhalf Sam Newhook (St. Johns), to find pay dirt. From there, the Warriors took over the game with hard defence leading to Toronto turnovers, allowing Waterloo to get the ball out to the sidelines and out-run the Varsity Blues to the goal zone. First half tries by Michael Baumung (Cambridge) and Tristan Gingras-Hill (Mississauga) and successful conversions by Jason Park made it 28-3 by half time. 
 
From then on, the Warriors would dominate the pace of play for the remainder of the game, making large gains on Toronto after winning the ball off the kickoff and not looking back. Forward Kyle Kraemer (St. Clements) was dominant, making several long runs, playing hard defence and pushing across four tries to seal the Waterloo victory. After taking two yellow cards late in the contest, the Varsity Blues would push across a well-earned late try in the second half after a long defensive stand on the Warrior goal line.
 
"We have lots of positives to take away from tonight," explained Demeter. "We have started to hit our stride as a group and with some younger guys getting their first taste of OUA action, we are going to give it everything we have to push into the playoffs."
 
Chipping in on the offence was Michael Baumung (Cambridge), Sam Newhook (St. Johns) and Tristan Gingras-Hill (Mississauga), who all scored tries for the Warriors. Sang Joon (Jason) Park (Mississauga) was perfect on his convert attempts, going 7-for-7 on the evening.

The Warriors will host the Guelph Gryphons next Friday afternoon at 3pm on the lower grass fields at Columbia Icefield.