With the words “Cortland will win” saved to their cellphone background, Oswego State Men’s Rugby Club used this motivation prior to their victory of the New York State Division Upstate Conference Championship title.

On Sunday, Nov. 15, the Oswego State Wizards defeated SUNY Cortland, 18-5, in the league final after their win against Niagara University on Friday, allowing them to enter the top 10 spot on the men’s rugby Division II ranking.

“A lot of online reporters said that ‘Cortland was going to win no matter what’,” said Oswego State Rugby Club President Reid Adler. “So we had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder and we just used it as motivation.”

According to Adler, playing Niagara University Friday was a stepping stone. After losing to Cortland in a close game at the beginning of the season, the Wizards knew what they were up against and they came to each game prepared.

“Everyone on the team now has the experience they gained from last year,” Morgan said.

According to Alder, Cortland is their biggest rival and practices leading up to games against Cortland are the most intense.

“We knew that it was the No. 1 team to beat,” Adler said. “We trained really hard, conditioned every day, prepared ourselves and watched a lot of game film that we had from Cortland.”

In the first half of the game, Oswego State scored twice. Cortland attempted a comeback in the beginning of the second half, but in the end it was the Wizards who prevailed.

The team president said that it was a collective team effort.

“Everyone did their job and everyone exceeded expectations,” Adler said.

Compared to years past, the Wizards had a different focus, according to captain Kevin Morgan. With practices at least five times a week in the Romney Field House, the practices were more intense leading up to this past weekend.

“We wanted it more,” Morgan said.

Oswego State now travels to Pittsburgh for the National Division II Championship going against University of Rhode Island this weekend with hopes of moving onto the University of Wilcoxon.

“Even at practice today, we just want the game to be now,” Morgan said. “We don’t want to deal with practice or anything, we just want to get there, get it over with and just win. We just want to keep on going. It was such a great feeling beating Cortland… we just want to feel the same thing over again.”

Last year, the Oswego Wizards made it to Nationals for the first time and were defeated in the first round. According to Morgan and Adler, the team has more of an advantage and is better prepared compared to last year.

“It is good to know that everyone on our team has experienced competing with a team’s outside our conference.” Morgan said.

Adler agrees that even though this is not a regular season game, the team has more of an understanding about what to expect when it comes down to traveling, practicing and playing against the best team in another conference.

“In Nationals, we only lost to three points last year,” Adler said. “It was a close game and we are expecting the same thing this year.”