Saint Mary's Impressive in Defeat of Cal in D1A QF Just two weeks after pulling off a late comeback win over Cal, Saint Mary's won in impressive fashion over their Northern California rivals to take their D1A quarterfinal Saturday in Moraga. Saint Mary's never trailed in this game, which is a rarity against Cal. After about 10 minutes of the two teams testing each other like boxers in the ring, an impressive team movement involving several Gaels got Saint Mary's deep into the Cal half. And while Cal handled the Junoir Waqvesi chip kick, a knock-on gave Saint Mary's a scrum about six meters from the Cal line and on the right side. No. 8 King Matu picked up, was hit, but had the power to get it into the corner for the opening try. Cal answered with a penalty goal moments later, and Saint Mary's answered with one of their own. Midway through the first half it was 8-3 Saint Mary's, and clearly seemed close.
Navy Thunders Past ASU 57-5 Navy torched a very good Arkansas State team 57-5 to advance to the 2023-24 D1A semifinals. Played at Navy's venue in Annapolis, Md., the game could well have been very close—there were many reasons to believe it could be. But in the end, it wasn't. The Mids built a 12-0 lead with a pair of tries from William Webb in the seventh and 13th minutes. Ben Haugh added a try in the 35th minute to make the score, 19-5, at halftime. Navy tacked on five more tries in the final 40 minutes and made a penalty kick to outscore Arkansas State, 38-0, in the second half. “We’re exactly where we want to be and now heading to the semifinals in the D1A playoffs," said Navy DOR Gavin Hickie. This is where we envisioned ourselves at this point of the season and the most pleasing thing from our perspective is that we’ve earned another week together.
Early BYU Surge Sees Cougars Past Wildcats to D1A Semifinals For the second year in a row, BYU rode a torrid first half to defeat Central Washington in the D1A playoffs. The Cougars exploded for a 33-5 early lead before Central Washington was able to somewhat right the ship. Regaining the momentum, the Wildcats stormed back, but there wasn't enough time. BYU held on 40-24. With Scholz Award finalist Wyatt Parry running the attack brilliantly and outside center John Campbell having a monster game with big breaks and key tackles—both players scored tries—the Cougars were in control early. "I thought the guys started extremely well," said BYU Head Coach Steve St. Pierre. "They executed the game plan, put themselves in a good position early, and that was important. Because Central Washington is a great team and we knew they would find a way to come back so we had to come out fast.
Life Downs Lindenwood To Make D1A Semis When you get right down to it, Life University has only lost once all season, and that was a pretty close game; Saturday they aimed to prove they were, indeed, that good. The Running Eagles defeated Lindenwood 25-10 to advance to the D1A semifinals against Navy (the one team they’ve lost to, by the way), coming back form an early deficit to take the game in emphatic fashion—at least as far as this heated rivalry goes. Lindenwood ran out to an early lead. Four minutes into the game a penalty led to a maul which led to another penalty and another maul … and the Lions had a 7-0 lead. Life responded well, working their way through the phases and testing the Lindenwood defense. The Running Eagles got a penalty in the middle of the field, and they, too, took the lineout.
D1A Quarterfinal Previews! OK, let's say it again—this is the most competitive D1A season, perhaps ever. Really we were saying this in 2023, too, so maybe it's just the new normal. What we found interesting this year is that the finalists for the Scholz Award—Rudy Scholz Award Finalists Named—are from four teams that might very well not make it to the semis. Heh ... you never know. That's the point. Let's take a look at the quarterfinals this week: Eastern Semis Arkansas State at Navy What Arkansas State has managed to do is battle through difficult times and pull out the game. But, as we talked about in the rundown of last weekend's games, Evan Roode put the team on his back at the end and that's why they beat Davenport and that's why he's a Scholz finalist.
Rudy Scholz Award Finalists Named The four finalists for the Rudy Scholz Award as the top collegiate rugby player in the USA have been named. The Rudy Scholz Award is sponsored by and presented by the Washington Athletic Club of Seattle, Wash., and the WAC holds an awards event every June to present this trophy and the trophy for the MA Sorensen Award. This year's finalists were selected through a nomination process using a panel of coaches and media (including GRR). A big part of WAC's involved is that the collegiate rugby public are involved in the selections, and teams, coaches, players, and fans were invited to help select the finalists from the list of nominees. Rudy Scholz, who played at Santa Clara from 1914 to 1918, was a two-time Olympic Gold Medal-winner in rugby, playing halfback for the USA in 1920 and 1924. He served in the US Army in both World War I and World War II, when he was well into his 40s.
Eastern Regional Headlines D1AA Playoff April
The spring D1AA season is coming to a head with two playoffs this weekend, another next weekend, and a weekend of bowl games and a championship at the beginning of May. In Florida, the semifinals kick off with St. Thomas (8-0) taking on Florida State (5-3). The seedings hinged on the FSU vs South Florida game, in which USF won 39-34 to budge ahead at 5-2-1. That sets up USF vs Florida for the other semifinal. The final will be a week later, with teams from Florida slated to play in bowl games in Houston as part of CRAA's Finals Weekend May 4-5. On the West Coast, we will be waiting a week before finding out who goes to the CRAA final. California North champs American River will take on NCRC winners Western Washington in one semifinal, while California South champs University of San Diego will place California Norther runners-up San Jose State in the other.
Some Big Scores in D1A Western Bracket Cal Poly visited Cal for Round 1 in the Western Bracket and the Mustangs started the game on the front foot and using their kicking game to test the Bears. A Coby Baker penalty attempt drifted wide, and after a few minutes Cal finally got into Mustangs territory. A short pass while being hit by Evan Weigold to Oliver Newall put Newall through for a 25-meter jaunt and try. Five minutes later, Cal Poly was awarded another penalty kick opportunity, which Baker put over. But after that it was mostly the Bears writing the story—tries from Clayton Seastrand, Weigold, Michal de Beer, and Joe Kirsten made it 38-3. Just before halftime Cal Poly center Dylan Caillouel stole the ball out of the ruck and raced in to make it 38-8. The second half saw both teams feel each other out but it was Cal Poly with the run of play and better field position.
D1A Eastern Bracket Playoff Games: Eastern Update Here's the latest from the D1A playoffs in the Eastern bracket. Navy scored early, gave up a try on a chargedown, and then kept the pressure in winning 41-7 over Mary Washington. The Mids scored off a short lineout throw less than three minutes in, with hooker Jake Beitia charging over. The lineout had come as a result of a penalty for an intentional knock-on, for which UMW was yellow-carded. Wing JD Bengston slotted into the middle of the backline off a scrum move and took the next one into the corner. Then a high ball from Landon Opp was caught on the run by Drew Baublitz and he was gone for about 48 meters. UMW answered with that chargedown—captain and No. 8 Lloyd Stephens got off the line quickly and blocked the kick.
Playoff Time in Most Competitive D1A Ever Saturday brings the opening round of the D1A playoffs and there are a couple of things to consider. It's Different Because ... This year the playoffs expanded to 16. No one gets a bye to the second round. Serendipity jumped in with eight of the top 16 teams being in the East and eight being in the West. That won't happen every year; there will be a time where we'll see things a bit more lopsided and the question will be whether someone gets shifted to the other side, or if a #17-ranked team gets in because it's #8 on that side of the country. It's Also Different Because ... No automatic bid exist anymore for conference champions. This came about after some teams that won their conference we just not in a position to do well in the playoffs against high seeds.
Walsh University to Adopt Notre Dame College Rugby Programs Walsh University will announce tomorrow on the campus of Notre Dame College that the NDC men’s and women’s rugby teams will be able to transfer to Walsh. Walsh is a small (2,500 students) Catholic university in North Canton, Ohio. It currently has no rugby team but has been expanding its athletic department and has two large grass fields donated by the Hoover Corporation, along with a refurbished football stadium. Walsh has a package of majors that are very similar to NDC’s, but the school states that it is in a strong financial position, in contrast to NDC, which is closing this spring. Notre Dame College to Shut Its Doors this Spring A campaign from NDC Director of Rugby Jason Fox to find a home for the rugby team, instead of distributing the players around to various colleges, was afoot even before NDC announced it was closing. In the end Walsh was easily the most receptive.
Good News Afoot for NDC Rugby Players We don't have a ton of details for you right now, but we do have some important news for anyone following the Notre Dame College rugby programs. As reported—Notre Dame College to Shut Its Doors this Spring—Notre Dame College the institution is closing. That leaves many students scrambling to find a new college or university to attend.
D1A Playoff Matchups Confirmed The D1A playoff matchups are out. Interestingly, the rankings provided a perfect East-West split (eight teams in the Top 16 are from the East, and eight from the West). That made creating the bracket a lot easier for everyone. While the rankings are important in creating these seedings, they aren’t so important that it matters whether your team is #3 or #4. It matters where you fit among the East or West teams. So, this is the regional ranking from D1A: East: 1. Navy 2. Life 3. Lindenwood 4. Arkansas State 5. Davenport 6. Mount St. Mary’s 7. Army 8. Mary Washington West: 1. Saint Mary’s 2. Central Washington 3. BYU 4. Cal 5. Cal Poly 6. UCLA 7. Arizona 8. Grand Canyon (These seedings certainly differ from GRR’s rankings, which had Life ahead of Navy, but if you look at East-only games Navy has the head-to-head over Life.
GRR D1A Rankings 2023-24 Week 23 So we frast-tracked these rankings because the playoff seedings are expected to come out very soon, and these rankings are a small part of how the official D1A rankings and seedings are used. We might see a little difference within the D1A official rankings, but not much. Here's what we were thinking: 1. If LIfe had faltered against BYU, even in a win, they might have been moved down pending a Saint Mary's win over Cal. But they did well, and while Saint Mary's did, too, in the end, based mostly on overall strength of schedule, Life retains the #1 seed. 2. Navy has one loss. Should be #3 despite the fact they lost to a team that has lost (now) three times. 3. Lindenwood has a loss on their record, too. Two actually, but again their overall strength of schedule and success has been good.
Key Seedings Results in D1A In the final D1A weekend before the rankings and playoff seedings come out, here's what we have so far: Saint Mary's beat Cal on a late try. With the score 26-24 in favor of Saint Mary's, Cal found a gap near the Saint Mary's line and then sent it wide for a try by Cal's top try-scorer, wing Joe Kirsten. With the conversion Cal led 31-26 with 17 minutes to go. Saint Mary's, playing without their captain, Kaiponi Koyashi, who is injured, found a way to bounce back. With 15 to go Cal was pinged for offside in the middle of the field. Saint Mary's got a perfect touchfinder from Erich Storti and from that lineout the Gaels faked a maul and went wide. Inoke Waqavesi sold a couple of sidesteps and garnered enough attention that were that space for an inside ball to Dom Besag who burst through an inside channel.
