Gonzaga U 7s Starts Strong
Gonzaga University is savoring a fairly successful Sunday at the Western Washington 7s, in which the team finished 2nd to Univerity of Victoria.
The previous weekend, Gonzaga had won the Idaho Thunderdome 7s, beating Idaho, Washington State Bs, Eastern Washington, WSU-Tri Cities, and WSU As.
In the final of that tournament, Gonzaga came back from a 15-14 halftime deficit to win it - Darragh Ruane drew a defender and offloaded to freshman Jonathan Kim who scored the final try in the corner.
Senior Joe Keane scored a team-high 6 tries, played well both offensively and defensively, was a tenacious tackler, and set up his teammates on numbers occasions.
Men Fall DII College Rankings Week #2
Here's the latest Men's DII College rugby rankings, and we've got some shifting.
Vermont lost a couple of games, and while those losses were very close, in this deep a ranking that can drop you significantly. Norwich bumps up, and so does Northern Michigan. Western State dropped School of Mines two weeks ago, and they go from unranked to #12. Southern Illinois is another high joiner.
We drop USM&T (need some results!), Molloy (lost twice), Buffalo State (ditto), and St. Louis (harsh, because they're close). And we add in a bunch as we expand to 50.
Keep an eye on Spring Hill. They've lost games, but to strong DI teams. It will be interesting to see where they fall. Right now we're not penalizing them for those losses because they've been competitive.
Gamebreakers - Zack Forro
Zack Forro is a hard-charging center for Notre Dame College. He had to miss his team’s game against Navy because he was called up for military service (he’s in the US Army Reserve), but was back for this past weekend’s clash with Davenport.
The Falcons won by two points and Forro scored two tries and was a key part of the Notre Dame College attack, getting them in scoring position on multiple occasions.
Ramblin' Jesters Young 7s Player of the Month - Isaiah Lopez
As New England College runs through another fall 15s season, the team is looking for leadership from several players, including Isaiah Lopez.
The Ramblin’ Jesters is an elite invitational sevens team in the grand tradition of the Barbarians and other compilation teams, operating out of London in the UK. This year they won the Rosslyn Park Floodlit 7s (beating London Irish and five-time winners Harlequins en-route to the final). The Jesters also won the Rugby Rocks Festival in London and the Copenhagen 7s in Denmark. |
Geneseo Helps Shake Up Upstate NY
Three weeks into the Upstate New York Men’s DII college season and already theres been a bit of a shakeup.
SUNY Geneseo, 4-4 last year, has jumped out to a 2-1 record with wins over Buffalo State and, this past weekend, SUNY Oswego. Their only loss was a close 29-24 decision to RIT.
“We’ve improved on the defensive side of the ball quite a bit, cutting down on penalties, firing up flat and together,” said Geneseo Coach Stephen Parker. “This past spring season we did well to develop chemistry between our players, which led to a better flow rather than inconsistency.”
Big Score Puts Mines in 1st
Colorado School of Mines remains atop the Rocky Mountain Men's DII after thumping Colorado 88-15 Saturday.
Played at Mesa's picturesque field on campus in front of a big crowd, the game was physical and played in a good spirit, but Mines was just in control. Mines was looking to rebound after a tough close loss at home last week against Western State, and started well, scoring three tries in the first ten minutes. After that, they never looked back.
Tri-State - Sacred Heart, RPI to 2-0
Sacred Heart moved to 2-0 in the Tri-State Conference North Division with a tough 26-22 win over Siena Sunday.
The result put Tri-State teams on notice as Siena is always a strong team in the competition, and Sacred Heart looked good in beating them.
Siena kicked off to start the match and Sacred Heart did well to maintain possession and work the phases to score and lead 5-0. Siena answered just two minutes later with their own unconverted try at No. 8 Ryan Powell set up flyhalf Mike Gallagher.
In a hard-hitting match, Pioneers took a defensive scrum at the 5 meter line and worked down field to finally put the ball over the tryline and with the conversion led 12-5. Siena answered with a penalty to make it 12-8, but Sacred Heart put the pressure on with a try just before the break and a 19-8 lead.
UVic Beats Gonzaga to Win WWU 7s
The University of Victoria won the WWU 7s Sunday, going 4-0 on the day.
Gonzaga University did very well to finish 2nd, while UBC took 3rd.
The WWU 7s was to feature three pools of three teams each. However, some late cancelations turned it into an eight-team, two-pool event. The top teams from each pool made the final.
UVic defeated Western Washington 38-12, Oregon State 50-0, and WSU-Tri Cities 44-0 in pool play. Meanwhile, Gonzaga handled WWU’s 3rd team 24-5 and WWU’s 2nds 36-0, and shocked UBC 39-0 to win their pool.
So that set up the final, where UVic beat Gonzaga 46-16 (which seems like an odd 7s score to us, as it would require Gonzaga to have kicked at least two penalty goals … but that’s what the official scoreboard said).
MAC - Ohio Wins Close One, BGSU, WMU Roll
Of course once we at Goff Rugby Report profiled a team that might be on the rise, that team loses; so it was in the MAC where Louisville, which started strong last week, were pipped this week by Ohio.
OU ran out to a seemingly commanding 27-5 lead in the first half thanks to two tries from fullback Killan Mulkern, and one from No. 8 Garrett Easterly. Mulkern converted all three and added two penalty goals. Louisville got a try from center Vatuvei Pio, and then late in the first half scored two more tries to make it 27-19 at the break. Another Louisville try early in the second half made it a one-point game, but then Ohio tries from flanker Sean Meaney and Easterly again, with Mulkhern converting both, put Ohio up 41-26.
SCRC - Florida, USC Cruise
South Carolina defeated Mississippi State 70-7 to move to 2-0 in the SCRC this weekend.
Georgia won 30-6 over Vanderbilt, to improve to 1-2, and Florida moved to 2-0 with a 60-17 defeat of Ole Miss.
Overall, said South Carolina Head Coach Mark Morris, it was a solid performance. Morris noted that his B side, led by Jack Harmon and Luke Harris, won 64-0, showing the Gamebcock depth. The USC Bs used 11 freshmen.
In the A-side match, it took a while to get on the scoreboard, said Morris, "but once we adjusted to our new system we started to click. Mississippi State played tough defense all day but our forwards and backs worked well together to keep the ball moving and in looking for offloads to keep the ball off the floor."
UWW Dominates in WIIL, But Rivals Remain
Wisconsin-Whitewater continues to dominate in the WIIL, posting big scores including a rout of a very tough Wisconsin-Milwaukee last week.
The Warhawks also hammered Marquette, and, this weekend, shut out UW-Platteville 100-0.
UWW Assistant Coach Matthew Pederson has several experienced players to call on, but he also doesn’t want his team to be complacent. He pointed out that last week UW-Milwaukee opened up the game by forcing a turnover near their own tryline and rumbling 95 meters to score.
That was a wakeup play, and continues to ask more of a team that could cruise through much of the season. The Whitewater scrum continues to set s good platform, and in part because the scrum has been so good, hooker Garrett Shibilski, who was such an impact in last year’s playoff run, has been moved to fullback.
Big Ten Latest - Top Teams Put Hands Up
It's been a season of lopsided victories so far in the Big Ten, and certainly it looks as though there's a group of strong teams, and a group of not-so-strong teams, and possibly two trying to jump from one to the other.
This week, as expected, Indiana jumped to 2-0 with an 80-7 defeat of Illinois. What makes this notable is that Illinois had opened the season with a 45-0 win over Iowa, and so you'd figure the Illini were in the top half. Well, there's being in the top half, and there's hanging with IU, which is a different thing entirely. IU dominated, and now look ahead to Purdue ... which is likely to be another comfortable win after Ohio State hammered the Boilermakers 52-12.
Notre Dame College Edges Davenport in Game of Weekend
In perhaps the most dramatic and most closely-watched clash of the weekend, despite it being a non-conference game, Notre Dame College edged Davenport University 26-24.
The game was a back-and-forth affair in a game of contrasting styles. Davenport used a methodical, phase play approach, while NDC looked to be patient, play smart defense, and make big-play opportunities count.
UMW Wins - Chesapeake Games Close
The University of Mary Washington defeated Salisbury University in Fredericksburg, Va. Saturday in the 2nd Chesapeake Rugby Conference game for both teams.
UMW got out to a fast start with a try from flyhalf Terence McPhillips in the first few minutes. This began up a flurry of scoring from UMW as they posted 17 points in the first 15 minutes.
Salisbury showed why they have made multiple national DII championships in the last fives years, and buckled down to slow the onslaught and keept it was 17-0. The second half opened with a strong showing from UMW and they ran out to a 34-0 lead with the forwards rucking and driving at every opportunity. No. 8 Andrew Lamarca scored a nice try off a driving maul and fullback George Northwood ran in a 60-meter try to put the game out of reach.
Norwich Undefeated, Middlebury Wins
Norwich University overcame a slow start to beat University of Vermont and move to 3-0 in the New England CRC Men's DII Conference.
The Cadets arrived in Burlington somewhat flat and UVM scored a try in the first three minutes. Seven minutes later Norwich bounced back and to took a 7-5 lead with a try by freshman prop Keyon McCloud Holman and Keegan Frick conversion.
UVM played solid aggressive rugby and scored back to back tries at the 28th and 38th minute, the second one converted. Throughout the half Norwich played inconsistent rugby that lacked continuity and were responsible for numerous unforced errors. The half closed with UVM up 17-7.
