Oct 4- Arizona continued their preseason on Friday against Grand Canyon in a Freshmen-Sophomore matchup at Clements Field. The Wildcats were looking to move to 2-0 on the young season, with a young team led by Flyhalf Saxon Gerstl as the stand-in captain at Flyhalf. 

The Wildcats’ first scrum would help ensure a fast start, as Gerstl put Wing Nick Morgan through a gap for the first-phase linebreak, with Center Tom Manning in support to finish the sequence and make it 5-0 in the opening minutes. The ensuing kickoff would see a second phase linebreak by Gerstl with Flanker Nick Lake in support. Lake would find Hooker Logan Shea before Brody Johnson’s support line would make it back-to-back scores and a 14 point lead after two Gerstl conversions. “Great start from us, with some great reads and support lines turning those line breaks into points” said Director of Rugby Sean Duffy. The Wildcats’ set piece would then start to get firing, with a well-worked maul setting a platform for Wing Schumacher to break through to make it 19-0 in the 30th minute. A strong scrum would create a lane for Scrumhalf Connor McIsaac to attack soon after. The New Zealander would find Schumacher on the wing who would make two defenders miss before putting Manning away for his second try of the match to make it 28 points in just 32 minutes. Arizona’s forwards would put the finishing touches on a strong half, with another maul deep in GCU territory and some patient attack resulting in a try by Prop Jack Lister and make it 35-0 at the break.

 

The second half would see a number of lineup changes, with the preseason offering an important opportunity to evaluate athletes and combinations. Those changes and GCU taking advantage of Arizona mistakes would give the Wildcats important lessons as they build into their 1st XV match-up against Colorado in two weeks. An early try in the half from center Emmanual Magutakuona would make it 40-7, with Carter Hertstein & Will Barrett combining on a charged down kick to help setup Schumacher for his second try of the game to make 47-14. A late GCU try would seal things in Tucson, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 start to the Fall. “We’re thrilled to get a good effort, and we thank GCU for making the trip. While the first 50 minutes were a lot of what we are looking for, we have a lot of work-ons that games like this are perfect for showing in that last portion of the half. We have work to do, but for the first two weeks we’re most importantly excited by the progress, buy-in, and character of the 60+ guys who are putting in the work every day” said Duffy.

 

Arizona will play a Red-Blue intrasquad scrimmage next Friday before traveling to Boulder to take on Colorado on Friday October 17 in their first D1A match of the 2025-2026 season.

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The Wildcats regular season begins October 18th with a trip to Boulder to take on Colorado.
For the Wildcats’ full schedule, click here.​​​​​​​​​

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Arizona Scoring vs Grand Canyon

Tries: Manning (2), Schumacher (2), Johnson, Schumacher, Lister, Magutakuona

Conversions: Gerstl- 5/5, L. Barker- 1/2

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Arizona vs Grand Canyon​

1- Jack Lister

2- Logan Shea

3- Marcus Harris

4- Alex Kemp

5- Matt Grau

6- Nick Lake

7- Kaelan Meyer

8- Sean McNulty- VC

9- Connor McIsaac

10- Saxon Gerstl- C

11- Jake Schumacher

12- Tom Manning

13- Brody Johnson

14- Nick Morgan

15- Parker Beilke

16- Carter Hertstein

17- Dom Zapata

18- Geno McKenna

19- Jamie Clegg

20- Lance Barker

21- Declan Postin

22- Emmanuel Magutakuona

23- Ethan Heim

24- Will Barrett​

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