The Sacramento State men’s rugby team lost its first preseason game to the University of Calgary Thursday evening by a score of 24-8 on the Hornets home “pitch”-adjacent to the Hornet Soccer Field.

The Hornets got on the board first when sophomore Domenick Vaticano scored three points on a penalty place kick in the Dinos red zone.

The Dinos fired back with two trys counting for five points apiece. The Dinos converted both extra point kicks – each counting for two points – to take a 14-3 lead into half.

The Dinos scored another try with less than 10 minutes left in the second half but missed the extra point kick.

Sophomore Jake Jablonsky then scored a try for the Hornets to make it 19-8. The Hornets would miss the extra point kick.

Even in a losing effort Hornets coach Chris Miller said that he was impressed by the overall performance of his team.

“I really thought we played extremely well for our first game,” said Miller. “I thought we competed throughout the whole entire match?I was really proud of our guys.”

Miller said that he used 29 different players throughout the game, allowing younger players to get much needed game experience.

“We had guys out there that hadn’t really played together before and now we’re staring to build some continuity with each other. We’re starting to form a team,” said Miller. “We can only do so much practicing against each other. You got to go out there and ‘test the water’ against an opponent.”

Senior Daniel Engstrom said, “Playing a team like (the Dinos) is good for the young guys.”

“It’s good for them to get experience before the season starts because coming into the season being in Division I is a very competitive league. We’re playing some of the top teams such as (UC) Cal-Berkeley, Saint Mary’s (College), (UC) Davis, Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo),” said Engstrom.

Andrew Eggers can be reached at [email protected]