On a chilly and windy October day, the Grand Valley State men’s rugby team turned in a dominating performance against Saginaw Valley State.

After beating up on the Cardinals 73-0 in the two teams’ first match of the season, the Lakers (5-0) blew out SVSU 71-7 in Allendale on Saturday afternoon.

“Honestly we have the strongest pack I’ve ever seen or ever played with, we are just very technical in what we do and everyone knows their job and does it well,” said sophomore Calvin Bischoff.

GVSU head coach John Mullett was satisfied with his team’s performance, and unconcerned about surrendering seven points, because when it happened, the game was “kind of meaningless.”

Mullett is known to have his team take it slow in the first half, and Saturday was no different.

“We were playing slow early, but when playing slow you don’t stop trying to run it forward,” Mullett said.

The Lakers jumped out to a 7-0 lead four minutes into the match, and pressed on with force. 20 minutes into the match, the Lakers had a convincing lead at 24-0.

“We executed our game plan better than we ever have, I think in the time I’ve played here,” said senior Jared Preston. “We had a good week in practice. Usually we have a Thursday practice that is really light, but coach told us we were going hard on Thursday and he knows what we are geared up for and it was a great week of practice.”

At halftime, the Lakers led the Cardinals 44-0 and showed no signs of letting up.

The Lakers brought in reinforcements in the second half and did nearly as much damage as they did in the first half.

“We’ve got a lot of A-side capable players. I’m bringing in subs and that’s their opportunity to essentially keep the level of play high and show me that they deserve a chance to be playing when the games are important,” Mullett said.

GVSU flyhalf Louis Ricard was carted off the field after dislocating his elbow. Mullett said he spoke to Ricard after the game, and his elbow had already been repaired and showed no signs of a break or of ligament damage. Ricard isn’t expected back until he is 100 percent healed. Mullett expects that to only take a week or two.

The Lakers’ next match is at home on Oct. 23 at 8:15 pm against Ferris State. GVSU took the first meeting between the two teams 69-7.