Big Ten Down to WireThe battle for the playoff spots in the Big Ten Universities conference is still on even after the penultimate games of the regular season. Indiana remains undefeated, sitting at 5-0 after beating Michigan State 69-13 Saturday. Jake Hidalgo scored five tries in the game. Indiana has one more game, against Purdue in two weeks, to finish unbeaten. However, Indiana is not eligible for the postseason due to their using ineligible players last season. So they can say they were the best in the Big Ten, but can’t play for the championship. Who will? Well right now it looks like it will be Michigan and Wisconsin. Michigan defeated Purdue 83-8, with Cooper Smart, Zach Burns, and Cole Van Harn all scored two tries in the rout, and the Wolverines moved to 4-1.
Army Beats KU in Dramatic FashionContinuing what has been an excellent fall season for the Army flanker and captain, Collum Magee scored with six minutes left to life the Blck Knights over Kutztown in a clash of the top two teams in the Rugby East. Kutztown falls to 4-1 but takes two bonus points from the game, while Army improves to 5-0 and is in 1st place. The game was a dramatic, back-and-forth tussle between two very good rugby teams. Peter Basnight got the host Army team going with a try early on, but Kutztown equalized when Johan van Wyk set up Vetekina Malafu for a try to tie the game 5-5. Kutztown scored again to take the lead and the momentum would continue to shift at Army’s Anderson Rugby Complex all afternoon. Black Knight flyhalf Logan Pearce has kicked well most of the fall and slotted a penalty to inch his side closer.
Big Games Highlight Big DI Weekend
Leagues are coming to a climax this weekend as various college conferences look to the playoffs and the ACRC bowl games.
We'll go alphabetically by conference.
Except we start with a non-conference game. Iona is at Albany in good matchup for both.
In the ACRL, it's actually a fairly quiet weekend. Virginia Tech takes on NC State and Wake Forest visits Virginia. All eyes are on the big game November 8 between Clemson and Maryland. That game will decide who wins the conference.
Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Angus MacLellanAngus MacLellan has been on trajectory, but perhaps not this quick a trajectory. The hard-working prop for Davenport when they won a national DIAA title; the All-American who went to Ireland to play for Trinity; went to New Zealand; the now Davenport captain seemed destined to get a close look by the Eagles at some point. But right now? That seems a bit fast for a prop. OK, right now it is. Two factors contributed to MacLellan having to inform his team that he would be going with the Eagles to Europe this fall. One was injuries to two Eagle props. Titi Lamositele will be back on the field relatively soon and that’s good news, but he is out for November.
Men DI College Rankings Week 7
Goff Rugby Report is a bit late with this week's Men's DI Rankings, but when you've got about 100 teams to worry about, sometimes it takes a while.
We're back with a top 50, with two new teams, as Florida International keeps winning games and moves in, and Middlebury, who defeated #37 Boston College, also moves in.
Idle San Diego, and Columbia, who lost to Yale, drop out.
Besides those moves, there isn't much in terms of change. Kutztown edges up to #5 because they keep recording impressive results.
BIB Boasts Wealth of 7s ContendersThe college 7s on the West Coast comes to a climax in the next few weekends with the Battle in the Bay and the PAC Conference 7s, both held in the Bay Area. Of the two, the PAC might hold bigger prestige, associated, as it is, with colleges from the PAC-12 conference. But the Battle in the Bay casts a slighter wider net and features a larger number of national powers. Among them:Cal, two-time CRC winners and runners up in the West Coast 7s earlier this monthUCLA, two-time CRC semifinalists and winners of the West Coast 7sCentral Washington, perennial national contenders and winners (for the 5th time) of the NCRC 7sSt.
All About the Defense for WVU
It might be a danger to get caught up in statistics, but sometimes the statistics tell the story.
As we go into the Keystone Rugby Conference playoffs, with Pitt visiting St. Joseph's and Temple going to West Virginia, one stat jumps out - 21. That's the number of points West Virginia has allowed in its four league games. Of those, 14 were scored by Pitt, the #2 team in the Keystone West.
And while WVU's Chris Mackenrodt leads the Keystone in points with 60, and Ryan Blythe leads the conference in tries with eight, it's that other stats that may well matter over the course of the semis and final.
Tennessee Looks to Keep Rolling
Rugby in the South owes a great deal to the University of Tennessee, which carried the banner when many other colleges and clubs were barely hanging on.
And now that the South, from New Orleans to Jonesboro, Ark., to Marietta, Ga. to Orlando, Fla. to Columbia, SC is producing strong club and college teams, Tennessee still manages to be right in the mix. UT is 4-0 in the SCRC - the conference of teams from the SEC - and looks to keep going with a Friday-night game in Knoxville against Kentucky.
Head Coach Marty Bradley says that won’t be an easy game. Kentucky have been quite competitive and sit 2-2 in the SCRC at present.
“I am impressed with them,” Bradley said of Kentucky. “They are a good team and do a lot of things very well.”
Write Middlebury Back In
Earlier this season Middlebury College Head Coach John Phillips offered a very muted assessment of his team, warning that the Panthers were young, inexperienced, and up against it with AIC and Boston College in the ECRC.
Well AIC is still on the docket, but BC is not anymore, as Middlebury upset the Eagles 23-18 on Saturday.
On a rainy day and a muddy field both teams tried hard to play open rugby, and for the most part succeeded, but points were still at a premium, and handling errors still crept in.
Phillips said he was proud of how his squad front up against a big, physical Boston College team, and also how the team rebounded from a sobering early season loss to UMass.
Men DII College Rankings 2014-15 #5
It's been two weeks since we unleashed our last Men's DII Rankings, so there's much to cover in this edition.
The major news, of course, was #2 Salisbury falling to #5 Towson. The result has to move Towson up, and Salisbury down, but Towson doesn't go to #2 simply because this is just the excuse we need to move the dominant UW-Whitewater up. Beating your closest rivals, and #20 UW-Stout, 53-5 is a pretty good reason to get bumped up to #2. James Madison stays at #3 having beaten #27 VMI, but they could have been there, too.
Notre Dame College Powering Through MARC
Take a look at the MARC Men's DII conference and you'll see plenty of teams with nice records, such as IUP and Rowan in Tier I, and East Stroudsburg and York in Tier II, but if you look closer you'll see that the team to watch is another - Notre Dame College.
The varsity program is third in Tier I, but only because they have played one less game than IUP and Rowan (who are bother 4-1), and at 4-0 are poised to bypass the other two. Not convinced? Have a look at this one stat: 17 points allowed in four games. No team in MARC Tier I is even close to that number.
UMass-Lowell, Bentley Battle in Tight NE DII
The Rugby Northeast season is coming to a close, and it may be that the league was decided way back on September 19.
It was then tat Bentley defeated UMass-Lowell 54-24. Since then, both have been undefeated, and one wonders of Lowell would like another crack at the league leaders.
“We caught Lowell at a good time,” said Bentley Head Coach Brian Pendergast. “They were just getting into the season, and they are a very tough team.”
Indeed, Lowell kept winning after that game, and beat Stonehill 36-24 this past weekend.
ACRC Coaches Poll Oct 21
The latest ACRC Coaches Poll has Kutztown at the top, with Army moving back past Penn State into #2 after Penn State were defeated by KU.
Bolwing Green defeated a well-regarded Western Michigan and moved up two places as a result. Indiana edged Michigan and they moved ahead of the Wolverines as a result. Wheeling Jesuit lost to Davenport, and as a reuslt, drop three places.
New into the Top 20 are West Virginia, Ohio State, Middlebury (who beat Boston College), South Carolina, and Virginia Tech. Va Tech and USC are tied at #20.
OU Rugby Campaign Nets PR Firm Award
The Public Relations Society of America Oklahoma City chapter awards were held October 9 and among the winners was Lindsey+Asp.
The firm, which is run by students at Oklahoma University as an educational program, won "Best Communications Campaign" for their work in promoting the Oklahoma University rugby program in Norman, Okla.
Jarret Cofer, Ben Rucker, Zane Blanchard, and Trevor Morse were all part of that campaign, which involves a partnership with the on-campus PR firm and the rugby team.
OU Handles Tech, Keps RollingThe University of Oklahoma continued their winning ways with a 47-17 victory over Texas Tech in Red River Conference action. Tech fell behind 14-0 with two tries by wing Manny Soto, converted by Thomas Chinellato. But after OU captain Michael Al-Jiboori was sin-binned they perked up and scored two tries to get to 14-10. But OU rebounded. Lock Austin Weber and center Thomas Murphy touched down to extend the Sooners’ lead, and then Al-Jiboori opened it up with three tries in the final 20 minutes. “The first half was an adjustment for us,” said OU Head Coach Jason Horowitz, who started six freshmen. “We were missing six pack starters due to military, ROTC, wedding, and internship commitments.
