Iowa State Cyclones Blow Through to HOA Championship

11.12.2023College Men

Iowa State defeated Kansas 43-14 Sunday to win the Heart of America Conference 15s championship.

Kansas and Iowa State have combined to win every conference championship in 7s and 15s since the 2017-18 season. In this two-game weekend in Lawrence, Kans., they were in the final again following Saturday's semis after Kansas took down Iowa 24-13 and Iowa State shut out Kansas State 39-0.

The Cyclones kicked off to begin the game and after a KU clearance kick worked through the phases until hooker Ryan Snider broke the gainline out wide and offloaded to vice captain Drew Guinn for the first points of the match. ISU Back of the Year Justin Johnson was good on the conversion and the Cyclones were up 7-0 only two minutes in.

The Jayhawks quickly answered, drawing a penalty at the breakdown and Cael Kuhn stepped up and slotted a penalty kick from 40 out to make the score 7-3.

The Cyclones went back to work, again countering the Jayhawks exit and eventually working their way down field before captain and ISU Player of the Year, Alex Geisert, was able to bulldoze over the line. Johnson was again good on the conversion giving the Cyclones a 14-3 lead early.

The Jayhawks again responded, this time, after a few volleys back and forth, Kuhn smacked over a massive penalty kick from 50 meters out.

Iowa State was very happy to trade tries for penalties and kept doing that. The Cyclone worked their way deep into Jayhawk territory and eventually prop Chris Kerslake crashed over to make it 19-6. After a frantic first 20 minutes, both sides settled in exchanged hard carries in the midfield and looked to play the field position game. Powerful Jayhawks No. 8 Trevor Lister in particular carried hard and worked to probe a stiff Cyclone defense. But the tries didn't come. Kuhn was able to add three more via his foot, and a Cyclone drive stalled out inside the 22 to end the first half 19-9.

To begin the second half, now with the wind at their backs, the Cyclones went on the offensive and turned over a ruck deep in Jayhawk territory before working the ball wide to fullback Ian Klein, who was over for the score. Johnson again converted to give the Cyclones the 26-9 lead. and some minutes later center LJ Jordan-Rooyen's try made it 31-9.

The Jayhawks were not keen on folding and worked the ball downfield deep into the Cyclone territory before scrumhalf Luke Connor, the hero from the semifinal against Iowa, was able to get over the line to make it 31-14. But Iowa State had too much of a cushion. Klein was again able to find the tryline, converted by Johnson. And then a loose ball was toed ahead by Drew Guinn before he scooped up the ball and capped off an excellent showing from the Cyclones.

This win gives Iowa State their second consecutive 15s title and advances them to the ACR playoffs in the Spring where the winner of the Lonestar Conference awaits them.

“Coming into the year we knew we had to replace the majority of the roster that made the ACR finals last year," said ISU Head Coach Ant Frein. "While the boys started the year slow, those tests against NCR D1 and D1A teams early were initial as the staff knew we had to test not only our combinations but also our depth to develop freshmen and sophomores so we could compete at this level. Hats off to the staff especially for working tirelessly with players to get them ready but also to the holdovers from last year we did not blink when things did not go their way early in the year.”

Klein was named player of the tournament by the referees.

Heart of America, Iowa State

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