Pool Pay is done in the Men’s DI bracket of the USA Rugby College 7s Championships, and the big surprise is that the top seed is Davenport.

It’s not that anyone thought Davenport would not compete, it’s just that they were kind of a stealth team, and came to Cary, NC on fire.

Davenport won all three games of pool play, all by shutouts, finishing off the run with a 36-0 demolition of Texas A&M.

See Pool Standings Here!

Mike Houston and Latthapon Lormongkoi both scored two tries against A&M, but it was just as much the leadership of Kevin Lydon and the hard tackling and improved ball-handling of the likes of of Thomas Cheslek that got the Panthers through.

“We’ve been working on this for a while, putting together the pieces of the puzzle,” said Head Coach James Wood. “It’s mostly putting together the pieces of the puzzle, making sure our system works.”

But a physical defense was always a part of it, and the Panthers defended brilliantly to win all three games, and take  a +99 points difference, which earned them the #1 seed.

The #2 seed went to Saint Mary’s, which looked to be set to be #1 but put in only a 12-point victory over Arkansas 22-10. Coaches Joe Reavey and Kingsley McGowan opted to start some players who don’t see as much playing time, and they got a talking-to after the game about letting in soft tries late in the game. 

“They got the job done and we wanted a high seed, which is what we got,” said Reavey. “We’re just working on playing dynamic, go-forward rugby. People can forget that 7s is supposed to be fun and we’re trying to instill the fun aspect of the game into the guys, and it’s working pretty well.”

The #3 seed is Arizona State, which won one of the more dramatic games of the second day, falling behind to Notre Dame College (who, like ASU, went into the game 2-0), and then coming back after NDC started to force the issue and get into penalty double.

“We made some adjustments at halftime,” said ASU 7s Coach Ian Gregor. “Some of these guys are just young and they need times to adjust to some of the tougher games.”

After tries from Marcus Tupuola and Corey Graham for NDC, ASU worked better as a team and got Ryan Spiwak over twice, and Alex Sandstrom and Matt Brennan over, also, and won 29-14.

In another clash of 2-0 teams, Central Washington shut out NEC 19-0 with Ian Wright and Taner Barnes were the scorers for CWU. 

Lindenwood and AIC both ended 3-0, and in fact tied on points difference. AIC gets the higher seed due to tries difference. West Virginia won a crucial game 28-0 over Alabama to get the #8 seed. Kyle Antonucci scored two tries and converted three for 16 points, and Ethan Fish and Dawson Sheetz added tries as WVU joined Notre Dame College as the two best #2 teams.

Here are the standings.

Here are the Quarterfinal matchups:

Davenport v WVU

Central Washington v AIC

Saint Mary’s v Notre Dame College

Arizona State v Lindenwood

Bowl Quarterfinals:

NEC v Arkansas

Cal Poly v St. Bonaventure

Texas A&M v South Carolina

Bowling Green v JMU 

Shield Quarterfinals:

North Texas v Alabama

Fordham v Wyoming

San Diego State v Kennesaw State

Oklahoma v Iowa