Kentucky traveled to Indianapolis (IN) to face IUPUI in their season opener on Saturday and came away with a 57-12 victory.
The Wildcats received the ball from the kickoff and moved it down the left flank in phases to score the opening try with Dirk van den Berg crossing for the first score of the season. Conversely, the Jaguars were also able to move the ball down the field and score on their first possession but failed with the conversion to see the score at 7-5 to the visitors early in the game.
Collin Burckle opened his try scoring account which was converted by Brendon Esson to make the score 14-5 but the Jaguars would not give up easily. They came roaring back to score a scond try of their own and close the score to 14-12.
Kentucky had taken some time to shake the rust off and IUPUI’s second score seemed to shock them into action as they put together some solid back row action to cut open the home team towards the back end of the first half. Josh Bryant and van den Berg being the benefactors as they scored a try each, both converted by Esson. Esson also added a penalty kick to leave the half time score at 31-12 in favor of the visitors.
The Wildcats came out for the second half looking to put the game out of reach and that’s precisely what they did. A very early try from Burckle extended the lead to 38-12. The defensive side of the ball stepped up the pressure and forced the Jaguars into multiple errors which gave more possession to Kentucky. Jacob Goeppner joined the attack from his full back position and scored a try to make the score 45-12 and realistically the dame was sewn up.
Jaydon Haydon added two tries late in the game to close out the scoring as Kentucky held IUPUI scoreless in the second half. Esson converted six of his seven attempts while Kaden Fothergill added one.
The “B” Team followed the firsts pattern as they also started slowly but were able to come away with a 29-7 win. Tries by Alex Sobieski (2), Tobias Watkins (2) and Kaden Fothergill secured the win. Conversions were by Henry Johnson as he made two out of five attempts.
