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Club News
Sunday April 2, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels have had big leads in most of their league matches this season and have not trailed in any of them, but Sunday was a different story. Fullerton came out right away and took advantage of some unusually sloppy tackling by the Rebels. They scored within the first five minutes of the game. The scoring didn't stop there. The Titans poured it on and extended their lead to 17-0.
In one of the few plays in which the Rebels showed their true form, the ball was swung out to Winger Matt Iuli, and he was able to score it just in the corner of the try zone while being tackled out of bounds. Iuli's try capped off the first-half scoring at 17-5.
The second half was a mirror image of the first half as Fullerton once again scored early and often, scoring three more tries to lead 34-5. Then Sia Panuve scored with a minute remaining to make the final score 34-10.
Saturday March 25, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels defeated Occidental College 24-7. "Man of the Match" honors went to Scrumhalf Aaron Rivers. Our next match is Sunday April 2nd @ Cal State Fullerton.
Saturday March 4, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels defeated USC 40-0. The "Man of the Match" was awarded to Sia who grabbed his first "hat trick".
Saturday February 26, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels defeated the University of Irvine 33-21.
Saturday February 19, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels defeated the University of Arizona's "B" side in a close match 26-24. The final score came on a try from scrumhalf Aaron Rivers. Captain Chris Malouf then made the ever important kick after to put the Rebels in the lead. Flanker Justin "Kush" Kushi was named "Man of the Match" and rewarded the "Match Hat".
Saturday, January 29, 2000
The Ruggin Rebels came away last Saturday with a 36-7 victory over Cal Tech.
Cal Tech, coming off a 44-19 victory over USC, got off to a fast start and were quickly knocking at the door threatening to score within the first three minutes of the game. UNLVís stiffened its defense when it needed to, and Cal Tech eventually turned the ball over. After that costly turnover, the Rebels embarked on an impressive march down the field, which culminated in a Chris Malouf try putting UNLV up 7-0.
After that first defensive stand, the Rebels dominated the first half of play and their next score occurred as a result of tremendous individual effort by winger Jeremy Westfall. Westfall kicked a loose ball down the sideline and beat every one down the field and touched the ball down in the try zone to give the Rebels a 12-0 lead. Westfall later had to leave the game with a broken thumb.
Late in the half, UNLV was ready to score again when Brian Gavin broke through the Cal Tech defense and then passed it to Chris Milka, and that score gave the Rebels a comfortable halftime lead.
Against a solid team like Cal Tech, UNLV knew they wouldnít just lie down and roll over, and they came out in the second half and scored within the first five minutes. With the score 19-7 and Cal Tech determined to make a game of it, UNLV struck back quickly. In a 15-minute span, UNLV scored three tries.
The first belonged to Malouf, his second of the game, followed by a try by Gavin, and capped off by flanker Brad Burton diving into the try zone making the score 36-7.
Supporting your players is the life line of a good rugby team and UNLV probably had their best performance of this year in regards to that support. Coach Neal Knappenberger, although pleased with the performance of the team, still saw plenty of room for improvement.
I was pleasantly surprised with the way the team played especially after the long lay off due to the winter break, and bottom line is we got an impressive victory over a tough physical team that will beat most of the other teams in our conference.
Saturday, November 13, 1999
The Ruggin' Rebels rebounded from its first loss of the season to beat the UCLA Bruins 20-10 last Saturday outside Sam Boyd Stadium.
The Rebels applied early pressure to the Bruin defense with Dean Dimitriou converting an early try. UNLV looked to run away with it as Jeremy Westfall scored soon after Dimitriou.
With the score 10-0 the Rebels went looking for more but when Daron "The Professor" Albright scored a try that would have put UNLV up 15-0, the referee disallowed the try due to a UNLV penalty. Shortly thereafter, UCLA broke through the back line of the Rebels and scored their first try, bringing the halftime score to 10-5.
When the second half opened, the Rebels struck again with Dimitriou who took a pass from fullback Brian Peart and touched the ball down in the corner of the try zone, extending the Rebel lead to 15-5.
UNLV then held the ball in the middle of the field for most of the second half, but with four minutes left in the game UCLA drove through and scored, much to the dismay of the rebel back line.
With the score now 15-10, the Rebels responded quickly and effectively. They stole the ball from UCLA and swung it across the field allowing center Matt Iuli to score his first try of the season. Iuli’s try capped off the scoring and the referee soon blew the whistle for the end of the game with the score UNLV 20, UCLA 10.
Saturday, October 30, 1999
In their first action in over a month, the Ruggin' Rebels fought a tough match with Long Beach State ending up just short, falling to the 49ers 42-41 on Saturday afternoon. It was the Rebels first match back since winning the Flagstaff 10’s tournament.
Long Beach State plays in Division I at the university level and went 5-2 last year in that division. UNLV plays in Division II at the college level because it is still a club sport on campus.
Coach Neil Knappenberger, who has been with the program for all six years was pleased with the effort "This was a learning game for us, we had 31 players and all of them got to play, and they all played hard against a good sound team," he said.
After the 49ers had jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, the Rebels sustained pressure in the Long Beach side for almost the entire end of the first half, finally scoring on a run by forward Rob "the freight train" Rivers. Long Beach came back with a quick score and the halftime count was 22-10 after Rebel Captain Chris Malouf made a penalty kick to end the half.
Long Beach scored early in the second half on a try and once on a penalty to extend their lead to 30-10. The Rebels then came storming back led by a few new faces. Daniel Hoffman and Gene Gohring both scored their first tries ever and veteran winger Jeremy Westphal overcame some wild passes and scored two late tries to inch the Rebels closer. Westphal’s second try gave the Rebels their first lead of the game, 36-35.
Long Beach, however, had an answer to every score by the Rebels and with UNLV leading 41-35 after Daron Albright scored, the 49ers got he final score of the game and kicked the conversion to pull ahead, 42-41.
The loss was the Rebels' first of the year.
Long Beach State’s Kenya Katabe won "Man of the Match" honors for his solid back line play. UNLV will face UCLA next Saturday at 1 p. m. outside the Silver Bowl.
Sunday, September 26, 1999
The Ruggin' Rebels won the Flagstaff 10’s Tournament, hosted by Northern Arizona University.
At the tournament, the Ruggin’ Rebels went 5-0 en route to capturing the trophy, outscoring their opponents 199-15.
This was the 19th year of the tournament and the field included an impressive assortment of colleges and universities from the southwest. The Rebels were actually able to bring two teams to the tournament for the first time.
UNLV’s A Side entered day two of the competition as the top team in the tournament after defeating Arizona State’s B Side 33-3, Emory Riddle Aeronautical 63-0, and New Mexico Tech 28-7.
Sunday’s semifinal was a rematch against New Mexico Tech, which UNLV won by a score of 26-0, setting up a championship game with Arizona State’s A Side.
The Rebels once again were able to pull off a victory as they defeated the Sun Devils 47-5 to win the tournament.
The Rebels got two scores each from Chris Malouf and Brad Burton in the final game, and Brian Gavin and Dean Dimigriou added a score each.
Arizona State scored early in the second half to cut the Rebel lead to 19-5, but a failed conversion and quick Rebel answer dashed what little hopes the Sun Devils had of staging a comeback.
UNLV next plays at home against Long Beach State on Oct. 30 at the Silver Bowl.