Life University Athletics

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. and ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Life University took care of business on their East Coast tour with a 51-34 win over Penn State and a 30-0 win over the U.S. Naval Academy.
 
Head Coach Colton Cariaga characterized the performance against the Nittany Lions as one of momentum swings. "Today was a lesson in how quickly momentum can shift and lead to scores in the other direction," said Cariaga. "Points were scored in the transition aspect of the game. We have to zero in on winning those moments. What's positive is we started well and finished well. Moving forward, however, we are working for a complete game performance."
 
In the first game of the tour against Penn State, the Running Eagles jumped out to an early 7-0 lead as Sean Coughlan scored the match's first try. The Nittany Lions would get on the board with a penalty kick to pull within four points at 7-3. Life U scored two quick tries from Keagan Sparks and Mitch Wilson to push the lead out to 21-3, and looked like they might run away with the match. Another try Wilson and a penalty kick from PSU set the score at 26-6.
 
However, Penn State would not go quietly as they racked up three unanswered tries and a penalty kick to tie the match at 26-26. From there, things grew very tight as both teams traded tries to set the score at 31 all. The Nittany Lions took their first lead 34-31 on a penalty kick with 20 minutes left in the match. Life U would answer back, as Harley Wheeler took the lead to stay at 38-34 with a try. The Running Eagles would add two consecutive tries to take the win 51-34.
 
Against the Midshipmen, Cariaga was pleased with the improved performance of the defense, saying, "From a defensive perspective, based on our performance [against PSU], we identified a bit more awareness on defense, got our realignment correct and got off the line quicker. We made a couple of system errors in our last match, so the past 48 hours we've spent a lot of time making sure that we got our rotation and line speed right on defense. It's a work in progress and today was pretty good."
 
The defensive effort paid off as the Running Eagles knocked off undefeated Navy 30-0. Life U set the pace for the match early, as within the first two minutes Harley Wheeler found pay dirt and gave the Running Eagles a 5-0 lead. As few minutes later, Duncan Van Schalkwyk added a penalty kick to push the score to 8-0.
 
The remainder of the half was a defensive struggle for both sides. However, in the 34th minute Daemon Torres found the try zone. Maciu Koroi followed shortly after with a try of his own to give Life U a 22-0 lead going into the half.
 
The second half featured even more defensive performances. Van Schalkwyk added a penalty kick in the 60th minute to push the lead to 25-0. The Running Eagles sealed the 30-0 victory with a second try from Wheeler to complete the sweep of two Top 10 ranked teams.
 
This tour completed Life U's fall season. They will begin play again in February.