URI, USCGA Atop NECRC
Rhode Island and Coast Guard are tied at the top of the New England Men’s DII conference as both won this weekend.
Coast Guard slammed Boston University 71-0 to move to 2-0.
Coast Guard graduated half of their starting lineup, including their biggest forwards and their halfback combination. And they have been hit by injury early. But the players who were B-side players have stepped in admirably, and Head Coach Crist Holveck slotted in some freshmen this weekend.
“My on-field leadership, Steve Palmieri, is a true leader,” added Holveck. “He’s not the fastest, or biggest player, or best technically, but he communicates well and has great field sense. He might be the “cleanest” rugby player on the pitch I’ve ever seen.”
SCRC Gets Going
The SCRC Men’s DI college conference got fully underway this weekend with ten teams in action.
Florida held off a spirited Mississippi State team 55-21, winning against an athletic and hard-working MSU squad. The Gators got three first-half tries from Stephen Beckerle to take a 24-7 lead into the break. But Mississippi State scored early in the second half to close the gap, and Florida needed Caleb Gilmer’s try to retain the cushion. Jack Christmas, Justin Crowell, Kyle Burnett, and Kevin Knox all ran in second-half tries to put it away for the Gators.
Tennessee were coming off an impressive 25-10 defeat of Oklahoma last week, and hammered Auburn 59-5.
Alabama took care of Ole Miss 34-7. Head Coach Mark Seitz said his team played relatively well, but didn’t convert on all of their scoring chances.
Oklahoma Wins Home Opener
The University of Oklahoma began something of a new era with a 60-27 over the University of Tulsa Friday evening.
The game marked a comeback after player eligibility issues and a coaching change related to those issues, with Oklahoma now set to play a full Red River Conference schedule.
The game was open to fans of OU and Tulsa who were in town for Saturday's football game between the two schools. Sooners No. 8 Robin Persignol was heavily involved in play all day and freshman flankers Donovan and Logan Ronan were active, too. Logan Baker made several line breaks and Charles Montenez was a factor in the lineouts as Oklahoma won 60-27.
MAC Latest
It was in-conference non-conference games all weekend in the Mid0American Conference, and eight teams were supposed to be in action.
The games were all between teams in different divisions and so the games actually won’t count in the standings. That may have been why the game between Ball State and Ohio was called off, and while Dayton was unable to secure a referee, forcing one of the coaches to do the honors. That game ended with a Dayton win over Central Michigan
Western Michigan won a close one over Cincinnati 22-18 - the second straight close loss for UC.
And then Miami won a close one 31-27 over Kent State.
“Kent State are a good team,” enthused Miami Head Coach Jared Moore. “They’ve really developed their game. We played well at times. Some aspects of what we did were OK, but Kent State came back at us late.”
Southern Conference Latest
The Citadel rebounded from a tough league loss last week to defeat Lander 50-7 Saturday in Southern Rugby Conference Men’s DII college action.
Senior lock forward Austin Bannister scored three tries and was named player of the game for Citadel. No. 8 Doug Brown scored two tries and sophomore center Aaron Moore scored one try but it was a keeper, dummying his way through the line and racing 60 meters to paydirt.
Next week, Citadel will welcome back Col. Bill Bell, who returns after deployment overseas to resume his role as Head Coach.
Meanwhile, Elon put a bit of a stranglehold on UNC-Greensboro, shocking UNCG 20-5. UNCG were down 15-0 at halftime and scored a try that might have been a harbinger of a comeback. But Elon did well to score once more.
Furman defeated College of Charleston 62-5 to move to 1-1.
AIC Powers Over Dartmouth
American International College won over Dartmotuh in convincing fashion Saturday, beating the top Ivy League team 79-14 in a non-conference clash between the two.
AIC scored early, when in the 3rd minute Gavan D'Amore-Morrison won a lineout and, when Dartmouth didn't contest the maul, just went straight through. The lineout featured in the next try, too, as No. 8 Matthew Jones stole a lineout and the ball was sent quickly out to fullback Lui Sitama. Moments later, prop Jamal Hadley was in support of flyhalf Jihad Khabir and got the pass to trundle over.
Dartmouth exploited a penalty against AIC for hitting the man in the air to score the Big Green's first try of the day, But AIC replied, send it wide to Christian Adams for one score, and then stealing a Dartmouth scrum put-in and setting up D'Amore-Morrison for his second.
Rugby East Wrap - Army Top
Penn State moved to 2-0 in the Rugby East with a tough 38-33 victory over Wheeling Jesuit Saturday.
WJU dropped to 1-1.
“PSU punished us for our mistakes,” said WJU head Coach Tal Bayer. “I am proud of our effort on the day. Our boys pushed until the end, scoring four tries. It looked like we might pull it out.”
Wheeling Jesuit’s penalty problems were what hurt them, as Penn State scrumhalf Jimmy Ronan kicked eight penalty kicks. The Nittany Lions actually only scored two tries - wing Michael Eife’s score late in the first half, with Ronan’s conversion, helped PSU tie the game at 16-16, and then Eife helped extend his team’s lead in the second half with his second try.
ECRC Latest - UMass and More
UMass remains atop the East Coast Rugby Conference after another big win, this week 65-7 over Northeastern.
Co-captain Thomas Thekaekara and prop Derek Wagener both scored two tries in an overall strong effort from the Minutemen. Australian exchange student Joe Jenkins kicked for 15 points and added a try, and he has been a useful injection of talent for UMass at flyhalf.
“We know we’re going to have tougher games coming up,” said Thekaekara. “But we’re using these games to work together better. We’ve shown ourselves that we can score if we really try. Sometimes we struggle to keep our phase play alive. But we’re becoming more and more comfortable with what we’re doing.
New England College rebounded from their opening-week loss to AIC to defeat Fairfield 57-10 Saturday.
Empire Latest - Stony Brook, Syracuse, Colgate
The Stony Brook Seawolves opened up their Empire Conference account with an impressive 53-13 win over Fordham Saturday.
The Seawolves got four unconverted tries in the first half - Steve Kopcho, Jedediah Hedrixson, Jimmy Sheridan, and Shane Wend doing the honors, while Fordham, hurt by a yellow card for a high tackle, managed a penalty goal and a try to make it 20-8.
In the second half, Fordham closed the gap to a converted try with their second try of the game. But Bart Sweeney smartly used Wend as a decoy and went himself to put Stony Brook up 27-13. A second yellow card by Fordham put them behind the eight ball and Phil Salter, Sweeney, and Bryan Michel helped finish the game off.
Moving to 2-0 were Syracuse and Colgate. The Syracuse Hammerheads slammed Brockport with a somewhat shocking winning margin of 74-10.
Clemson to 2-0
Clemson followed on their big opening conference win Friday with a solid 68-5 defeat of North Carolina Saturday.
On Saturday, Tigers Head Coach Steve Lynch sent out a completely different starting lineup from Friday’s game. As Clemson did Friday, Saturday they started slowly, but built momentum quickly as the layers adjusted to Lynch’s new game plan. Nine different Clemson players scored tries.
Scrumhalf Andres Echeverria, one of seven freshman backs starting, showed energy and explosiveness, and fullback Jonah Lemothe scored two tries. Josh Dyson, who was big in support on offense and leading the defense, was player of the game.
“All in all,” said Lynch, “a solid start.”
Clemson Rolls in Opener
The Clemson Tigers hammered Wake Forest to the tune of 89-0 in the opening game of their ACRL season and also their first game under new coach Steve Lynch.
The Tigers had a few rusty moments in the opening minutes, knocking the ball on six times in the first 15. But this was also an indication of the Clemson players' desire to play with the ball. After a little talk from captain Ryan Gilroy they settled down and started to roll, leading 55-0 at halftime, and 89-0 at full time. Eleven different Tigers scored tries, and Drew Dommel had three of them. Flyhalf Aaron Keers had a good game at the pivot and kicked very well, kicking two penalty goals and going making all but two of his conversion attempts.
This was the unveiling of Clemson's high-energy attack and when they executed with precision, they were dealing, flooding behind the line-breaker to support.
Back in Good Graces, IU Ready to Face Big 10
The Big Ten Universities Conference starts play this weekend and the big issue is, of course, the fact that Indiana is no longer serving a punishment and is eligible for the playoffs.
It all seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity last season as IU finished top of the standings, but could not move on to the conference playoffs. Maybe their chance was missed?
Not so fast. IU graduated only two regular starters and with a solid recruiting group, and several players who played in high school but took a break freshman year, coming to training, numbers are way up.
Early Clash of Leaders in Deep South
Week two in the Deep South will ask big questions of the teams that have started well.
Key among those will be when Louisiana-Lafayette visits Spring Hill.
Spring Hill logged an impressive 65-29 victory over a shorthanded Troy, with scrumhalf Christian Cage causing problems for the opposition.
Meanwhile, Lafayette edged an in-form Tulane team 33-26.
“It was close the whole way through,” said center Rod Blouin. “Every time we scored it seemed like they’d come back and score too.”
Blouin said the matchup with Tulane is one the Ragin’ Cajuns look forward to as there is a good relationship between the two teams.
“It’s more like friends meeting up on the playground,” said Blouin.
New Lights, New Season, OU Opens with Special Night
Norman Okla. - The University of Oklahoma men's rugby program holds its home opener Friday night with a special event that includes two games.
It's the Penn Mutual's Premier Advisors Group and Legacy Panning Partners present OU Rugby's Opening Night, witha tailgate party and a night game under the lights. The matches are in conjunction with an OU football home game on Saturday.
Clemson Opens New Era
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for Steve Lynch as he prepares to take his Clemson Tigers onto the field this weekend.
Lynch was, until the middle of July, coaching in Glendale, Colo. But when news came out that Clemson was looking for a new coach, he applied, and within two weeks found he had a new job. Lynch had responsibilities with Glendale and the US Navy to work through before he moved to South Carolina, but since then he’s been hard at the work of replacing the highly-respect Justin Hickey, who moved to a new job in Pennsylvania.
And it’s a big job. Lynch has already instituted some changes. Having gone through an intense review process, where a panel of players had the final say on his hiring, he felt he was in a position to ask something of those players.
