San Antonio over Corpus Christi in TRU Cup Opener.

San Antonio over Corpus Christi in TRU Cup Opener.

FT: San Antonio MD3 (49) - Corpus Christi MD3 (15)

Man of the Match: Marcus Allen (#7)

Our Killer3’s opened up the 2024/25 season this past weekend with a trip down good ole 281into Corpus Christi to face the Crabs. Knowing that Corpus wasn’t going to just give the Armadillos a walk away win, the opening 12 minutes of the half saw both teams fighting for an advantage. San Antonio struck first blood off a lightning quick pic-n-go from the starting Fly-Half Jackson Elliot. This didn’t halt Corpus’ feistiness as within the next 10 minutes they found themselves on the board scoring in the corner. An enraged Killer3 backline would not be shown up and back-to-back scores at the 27th and 30th minutes by Lauolo Tuala and Kameron Radcliffe put San Antonio up, 21-5 going into the half.

A very controversial penalty at the 35 th minute slowed down the games pace when San Antonio’s # 15 Kaiminiaauao Wilson was shown yellow and sent to the bin. Regathering his troops, Captain Alexander (Ace) Seguin’s half time address seemed to calm his teams’ spirits. The second half kickoff would see the Armadillos shift into another gear, however. Fresh out of the Sinbin, Kai Wilson would strike a blow that would set the remaining pace of the game for San Antonio with a dazzling 40+ meter scamper for a try right under the posts at the 51st minute.

Fresh legs for both the backs and forwards joining the battle saw an immediate impact when #23 Caleb Ackerson screamed through the Crabs defense and dotted down another try off a dominant scrum down and a quick pop pass by veteran #21 Delfino Salinas. Capitalizing off a rare “on the back foot” defensive line, Corpus would score their second try in the far corner by their #8 in the 66th minute bringing the game to 35-10. Answering the Crabs count, a reinvigorated #7 Marcus Allen, and newcomer #22 Connor Johnson would stiff arm their way into the try-zone with more back-to-back dominating scores at the 70th and 73rd minutes, putting the proverbial nails in the Crabs coffin. A last-minute dart from Corpus’ #10 though would cement the final score at 49-15 on the 80th minute.

CATACLYSMICALLY CRUTIAL goal kicking was put on display by our scrumhalf Andrew Vongphachanh slotting 7 of 7 conversions on the day, awarding him the golden boot moniker. An iron curtain defense was established by #’s 12, 13 and 14 (Tuala, Fanua and Leggett) who sunk the Crabs backline attack down in force, while veterans #2 Terence Potter, #6 Ezra Hardin and #17 Andrez Beltran disrupted Corpus’ set pieces and forced some demoralizing turnovers. The Killer3’s will mark their home opener again inner-city rival Alamo City on December 7th at their Morningview Dr pitch.

Special thanks to our partners at Veterans United Home Loans of San Antonio!

A link to Rugby Xplorer can be found here.