Lindenwood Beats Davenport, Retains Labry Shield
Lindenwood University defeated Davenport 32-10 in the only Mid-South game of the weekend Saturday night.
PAC Conference Latest - Cal Wins Two
Cal made it official this weekend with two lopsided victories to finish PAC Rugby Conference play 5-0.
The Bears have won the conference, but of course will not participate in the DIA postseason as the Bears have opted, instead, to play in the Varsity Cup.
Cal defeated UCLA 88-7 and USC 91-7. This finished up a disappointing conference season for UCLA, which beat Arizona State and USC, but lost by 39 to Arizona, 41 to Utah, and 81 to Cal.
Arizona State finishes at the bottom of the conference after the Sun Devils had to forfeit against Utah last week. ASU’s troubles involving an incident during the B-side game against Arizona Feb. 25 forced the forfeit and could conceivably put their participation in the Varsity Cup this spring in question.
SD State Wins Big, Cal Poly Falters in Calif. Conference
It's pretty much all over now in the California Conference, as San Diego State put their stamp on the regular season, and Cal Poly slipped at a crucial moment.
SD State bounced back from a humbling loss to Saint Mary's (who have all but sewn up the conference at 4-0) to smash Santa Clara 92-28.
BYU Holds Off Saint Mary's
BYU held on to defeat Saint Mary's 35-26 Saturday in Provo in a game where the Cougars made some key improvements from the teams' earlier meeting, and the Gaels made some key mistakes.
Right from the kickoff BYU put Saint Mary's under pressure and within two minutes had sent the ball through the hands to put Jared Whippy over for a try. The Saint Mary's tackling was left wanting on the player, and BYU ld 5-0. The Saint Mary's restart went into touch on the full, giving BYU a scrum at midfield, and from there the Cougars attacked once more. They tried to put Kevin Schofield away, but while the wing was hauled down, some patient work from the Cougars finally put hooker Alex Vorster through on a short ball, and with Calvin Whiting's conversion, BYU ld 12-0.
Key Games in Pac West
Still on the winning track, UC Davis is not taking anything for granted in the Pacific West Conference.
The Aggies took care of business against Fresno State last week, with freshman wing Bradley Maples making a nice impact as he grows within what is generally a pretty experienced team. Led by hooker Cole Collings and No. 8 and captain Harrison Morrow up front, Davis has been able to set a platform to allow their backs to express themselves. It's working, but Coach Kal Incendy is sounding cautious as they look to this weekend's clash with Nevada.
"We're really only halfway to our goal," said Incendy. "And we've got some tough opposition coming up. Nevada has one of the best defenses in the league. They pulled off a really nice result against UC Santa Cruz. So we can't take anything for granted."
Men DI College Games Mar 11-12
Playoffs, pride, and maybe the rankings are at stake this week in Men's DI action.
Grand Canyon and University of Notre Dame could break into the Goff Rugby Report rankings with good performances this week. It seems like it's been forever since GCU actually played a rugby game. It's not quite that way, but it seems as such.
At the top of the rankings, of course, we have Saint Mary's at BYU in the second of what has become an annual two-game series. This One's Big. A win by the Gaels should solidify them at #1. A lot (and BYU, at home, has to be favored) could throw the rankings into a bit of a tizzy.
This One's Big
It’s clash of the Titans II - the Titaning (or something) as Saint Mary’s visits BYU for a rematch.
The Gaels defeated BYU 27-12 on February 18 in Moraga, Calif., and since then Saint Mary’s has continued to cut a swath through the opposition.
BYU has been swathing a little bit, too, The Cougars have dominated over the likes of Colorado and Air Force. They get their national team players - Matt Jensen and Calvin Whiting - back for the Gaels, and will want to put in a better performance in the forward pack, for sure.
BYU looked a little tired, especially in the final 20 minutes, against Saint Mary’s, and certainly the Gaels will want to push the pace.
Men DI College Rankings Spring 2017 Week #7
Not many changes this week in the Goff Rugby Report All-DI rankings.
We've dropped off the last five teams, and got back to a Top 50 after those teams either lost, or related teams made us more comfortable in leaving them out.
Some very small changes, but not a lot.
Ariel Re 7s Pools Announced
The Arie re 7s in Bermuda has announced its pools for the March 17-18.
Elven college rugby tams, plus a local all-star team, will compete at the National Sports Centre in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Pool A
Stony Brook
Iona
St. Joseph's II
Rowan
Pool B
Ariel Re All-Stars (Bermuda)
Kutztown II
Norwich
Penn
Pool B
Kutztown I
St. Joseph's I
West Chester Black Foxes
University at Albany
DIAA Payoff Latest
Notre Dame College is waiting to find out who the Falcons will play for the DIAA national title this coming May, and there's still a lot of rugby to be played before that becomes clear.
However ... it doesn't hurt to make a few guesses and assumptions. Here's how the playoffs look for DIAA in the spring:
Ivy League. The league season is done, and Dartmouth and Harvard will play Varsity Cup, so it's down to a four-game playoff in late March.
Yale will play Brown on March 25, and Penn will play Princeton on March 31. Then the winners of that game will play April 2 to see who makes the national playoffs.
SIRC. Middle Tennessee State continues to roll in the North, while in the South, it's still all up in the air after South Florida edged Florida State.
Here are the standings:
Penn State Wins Two in Scotland
Penn State have opened their tour of Scotland with two straight victories.
On Tuesday the Nittany Lions defeated West of Scotland 73-5.
Bryan McKellar scored three tries in the game, and Tyler May and Kevin Trotter scored two. Also scoring tries were Thomas Del Pino, Joe Kelly, amd Ryan Cornell. Jimmy Ronan converted nine of the tries in an impressive display.
Wednesday, Penn State took on Strathclyde and ran out 32-7 winners. The game was much closer than the score might appear, as the teams changed ended tied 7-7. A Kevin Trotter try, converted by Ronan at scrumhalf, was PSU's only try in the first 40. In a competitive game, the Lions knew they needed to get a bit of a cushion, and so looked to Ronan's goalkicking to nudge them ahead with two penalty goals.
DIA Playoff Picture
It's not too early to look at the DIA playoff scenarios, and in fact we're almost at a point where the playoff teams could be mostly confirmed.
Here's the rundown:
Rugby East. Penn State won the Rugby East and will go to the Varsity Cup instead. The rest of the teams in Rugby East are playing 7s or the Varsity Cup, so we won't see a Rugby East team in the playoffs at all.
Big Ten. Indiana won the Big Ten and is working through warmup games to prepare for the playoffs. IU should get a bye to the second round.
West DIA. Air Force won the conference, (for some reason we had them down as going to Varsity Cup, but they're not). There may still be a place for Colorado State if they want it.
Arrest Made After On-Field Incident
An arrest has been made in connection with an incident during the B-side game between the University of Arizona and Arizona State.
Christopher Crawford, 20, who is reportedly not a student at Arizona State and is not CIPP'd with the team, but was playing for the ASU B-side on February 25, has been arrested for kicking a player during a stoppage in play, while the Arizona player was tying his shoe. The Arizona player, Douglas Neary, required hospitalization and surgery.
For more on this, please go to the full local news report here.
Queens University of Charlotte Adds Rugby
Charlotte, NC – Queens University of Charlotte Director of Athletics Cherie Swarthout has announced the addition of men’s and women’s rugby to the departments sport lineup. Both teams will begin competition in the spring of 2018.
The school cited the growth of the game and the addition of rugby to the Olympics as the motivation for the move. With rugby being an emerging sport in the NCAA, competition can be included to satisfy the minimum number of competitions established by the NCAA.
Though most colleges and universities classify their men’s rugby programs as club sports, a growing number have begun offering it as a varsity sport.
With the addition of men’s and women’s rugby, Swarthout also introduced Katie Wurst as the director of rugby and Frank McKinney as the head men’s rugby coach.
ASU, Lindenwood Tie - Mid-South Latest
The Mid-South may well be all LIfe's now as the Running Eagles are 3-0, and Arkansas State and Lindenwood tied on Sunday.
Lindenwood just came from winning the Men's College 7s at the Las Vegas Invitational, and while Head Coach Josh Macy rested some players and left them home to prepare for Sunday's 15s game, he also brought his 7s players back quickly to help out.
ASU started with a try from forward Tabo Maree to give the Red Wolves a 5-0 lead. Lindenwood replied to tie it at halftime. Tanner Pope logged two tries for ASU in the second half, but each time Lindenwood would answer and the game ended 17-17.
