James Madison moved into sole possession of first place in the Cardinals Men’s DII College Conference Saturday with a 23-3 defeat of previously unbeaten Old Dominion.

ODU drops to 2-1, in third behind 3-0 VMI, who were idle this weekend.

JMU Head Coach Mark Lambourne said he was pleased with the relatively comfortable nature of the victory, but also felt that his team lacked some composure in the red zone, leaving some points on the field.

“We should have won by more,” Lambourne said. “The boys looked at the game and we graded out at a B, and in some areas a B-. This is where we are at sort of mid-term, and we know we can be a lot better.”

JMU ran out to an early lead, but in the second half Old Dominion managed to better disrupt Madison ball at the ruck.

This hurt the JMU quick-strike game, and, said Lambourne, “We broke down a little bit and things got messy. We had something like 70% possession, but we didn’t execute as well as we’d like.”

Twice JMU dropped the ball at the tryline.

“This is the first time all year we’ve played a really physical team,” added Lambourne. “In that sense it was a really good game to play, because won, and the confidence builds, but we also saw what it’s like to play a stronger team. We were trying to get offloads and they were realy physical and tying us up so we couldn’t make the passes.”

Lambourne also said the JMU passing could have been better.

Still it’s good news for Madison, and they got some strong performances from No. 8 Michael Creighton and freshman center Declan Costelloe. Scrumhalf and captain Erik Carlson was outstanding, also.

Next up for JMU is three weeks of very tough matches. They play a non-conference game against DIAA team Virginia Tech, followed by the all-important clash with Virginia Military Institute, which is favored against the Heat Elite and should enter that game 4-0.

Then there’s the always tough Radford.