Black and Blue muscle past Mud Dogs, 40-10

The Kalispell Black and Blue rugby team (4-0) continued its dominant season, remaining undefeated after a 40-10 home victory over the Missoula Mud Dogs on Saturday morning at Evergreen Junior High.

It was a slow start on a water-logged field, with both sides playing a physical game and trying to find space.

Black and Blue junior Sam Mann opened the scoring with a flash, taking an offload pass from 30 yards out, breaking a single tackle and sprinting past the defense for a try in the corner. Tucker Nadeau nailed his first of five conversions on the day from a tough angle to give Kalispell a 7-0 lead.

Matt Gash-Gilder added to that lead minutes later with a bruising try from 5 yards out and Hunter Wellcome added another one through traffic to give the Black and Blue a 21-0 lead at half.

Missoula scrapped back, scoring a try in the first few minutes of the second half, but the Black and Blue answered shortly after with a try from Jacques Eve to take a 28-5 lead.

Paxton Boyce scored 10 minutes later and Wellcome finished off a try after Jaycob Serrano secured an interception inside 10 yards to give the Kalispell side a 40-5 advantage.

The Mud Dogs added a try on the game’s last play, but missed the conversion.

“I think we played pretty decent,” Gash-Gilder said.

“We were flat to start off, we weren’t playing super tough in the ruck. Overall, we did alright.

“I think we really picked it up in the second half. That’s usually when we start playing better. We get warmed up and used to how the other team is playing.”

Mann was named man of the match.

Earlier in the day, the Black and Blue girls dropped a 17-7 loss to Missoula and All-American Julia Reikena. Paige Boyce scored the lone try for Kalispell.