South Carolina Wins Big Over Georgia
Columbia, SC - Carolina Rugby held their SCRC season opener this past weekend and came out victorious over the Bulldogs of the University of Georgia.
USC opened the scoring early when, within the first three minutes, senior lock Drez Henfield touched down the first try of the match, which was converted by junior scrumhalf Brian Keown, to give the Gamecocks an early 7-0 lead.
Good ball control led to Henfield's second try, also converted by Keown, and just before halftime junior No. 8 Mike Mahon touched down to give the Gamecocks a 19-0 lead at the break.
Davenport and Bowling Green Trade Momentum
A week after just edging Ohio State in dramatic fashion, Bowling Green hosted Davenport in another non conference game, and after the first 60 minutes had to wonder why.
Expecting a tight, hard-nosed affair, the Falcons instead stared down the business end of a shutout that ballooned to 37-0 with 14 minutes to go. In those final 14, Bowling Green did superbly to score four tries and make it a game, 37-26, but the total comeback wasn’t to be.
"Beat up from last week? Maybe," pondered BGSU Director of Rugby Roger Mazzarella. "Still basking in the glory of a last second victory over Ohio State the previous week? Possibly. But had the Davenport match lasted five more minutes, I think we would have been talking about a different final result."
Ivy League Latest (Updated)Dartmouth started their Ivy season with a 61-10 defeat of Cornell Saturday in a resut that was as expected. Dartmouth struck early against Cornell, with Max Parker touching down before two minutes were up, and Zack Fowler scoring three tries in the first half. Parker, who was making his first start for the Big Green, scored four on the day. Harvard also opened their Ivy League account with a big victory, beating rivals Yale 38-7. Eddie Love, Andrew Duffy, James Duncan, Zach Berger, Coby Buck, and David Daniel scored for the Crimson. Brown improved to 1-1 with a 41-24 defeat of Penn.
Notre Dame Makes Statement
The University of Notre Dame made a statement this weekend with a 43-32 defeat of Ohio State in a non-conference clash.
Ohio State has been hit hard by the respiratory illness going around, and are young, said coach Tom Rooney, but they also were very unfortunate to lose to Bowling Green a week ago where they showed how tough they can be. Notre Dame had a shot to take down a well-regarded opponent, and they did, unleashing a fast-ball form of rugby that netted 43 points.
“It was our first 15s game since April, and that led to the usual early jitters and mistakes,” said Fighting Irish Head Coach Sean O’Leary. “We settled down midway through the first half and started to build pressure and were able to get back into the game before halftime.”
MAC Latest - Miami Wins Again
It’s all to play for in the Mid-America Conference, as a busy weekend produced few games that actually affected the standings.
All teams have matches with opponents in the other division (the MAC is split between the North and the South), but those games aren’t recorded in the standings. So only Dayton’s 24-8 defeat of Cincinnati counts, and it counts a lot as Dayton is now 2-0.
Still there were some interesting games. Ohio showed they are back in the saddle with a 29-24 defeat of Northern Illinois. Troy Keener, Thushan Wickramasinghe, Vince Hahn and Hayden George all touched down for the Bobcats.
Central Michigan were impressive in a 42-10 defeat of Louisville. Harry Cassedy, Spencer Smith, Jake Hall, Christian Klemp, and Ryan Ruspaj all scored tries.
And Miami won their second MAC game, handling some early difficulty from Ball State to win 39-20.
WJU Unleashes in Rugby East
Rugby East just got a whole lot more interesting as Wheeling Jesuit crushed a well-respected Iona College team 50-7 Sunday in West Virginia.
SCRC Latest - LSU 2-0
Tennessee won a big victory Saturday as they beat rivals Florida 45-17 to start their Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference (SCRC) season 1-0.
Also winning in the SCRC East was Kentucky, which took down Vanderbilt 27-8.
AFA, CSU Strong as West DIA Opens The West DIA Conference got going this weekend with Colorado at Colorado State and Air Force at New Mexico. CSU had to postpone their Friday night match until Saturday because of the weather, but handled it just fine and shut out the Buffaloes 57-0. Meanwhile, Air Force won big on the road, 59-14 over New Mexico. Air Force Head Coach Joe Muehlbauer had hoped to take his team intoAlbuquerque having played a warmup against Life, but the USAFA transportation plan was changed at the last minute (they use Air Force planes when they can). Still, Muehlbauer said he is expecting big things from his team. “We graduated some key guys, but we’ll be fine,” said Muehlbauer.
ACRL Latest - Maryland Unleashes
It was shutout weekend in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (ACRL).
Virginia Tech defeated North Carolina 14-0 on Friday, and also that night Clemson shut out Wake Forest 46-0 in a game shortened due to a problem with the lights.
Army Holds Off Penn State
West Point held off Penn State 19-15 Saturday at the Anderson Rugby Complex to start their Rugby East conference season 1-0.
In a game that saw both teams lead at various points in the match, Army did enough.
Penn State led early, with former HS All American Malcolm May crashing over for a 5-0 lead after five minutes. Army had to work hard but finally took the lead when center Andrew Fargo raced in. Logan Pearce’s conversion put the Black Knights ahead 7-5.
Penn State re-took the lead with a penalty kick from freshman Jimmy Ronan, and then had to hold off a furious challenge from Army to end the first half. The Black Knights were on the goal line, but could not breach the Penn State defense to score.
Keystone Gets Started
Defending Keystone Conference champions open their season at West Chester, a the Keystone gets going for another year.
Temple is as Millersville, Shippensburg is at Rutgers, and St. Joseph’s is at Pitt. While WVU are the defending champs, St. Joe’s and Shippensburg both boasted 5-1 records last year, as well.
St. Joe’s Head Coach Dan Yarusso said his team is eager for conference play to start. Led by the fleet-footed Jimmy Wolfer, the Hawks will address this week’s game against Pitt the way they will likely have to handle every game - avoid getting into a slugfest.
“Pitt have some pretty big kids and we don’t,” said Yarusso. “So we will need to keep the ball in play, limit our mistakes, and rely on our fitness.”
A program that plays good 7s as well as 15s, St. Joe’s might have to draw on their 7s experience.
Florida v Tennessee Highlights SCRC Weekend
In NCAA varsity sports it’s called the Southeastern Conference, or the SEC, but in non-varsity rugby it’s the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference, or SCRC.
But a rivalry by any other name smells as sweet, and among the schools of the SEC, a game between their in-conference foes in any sport matters … a lot.
This weekend, the SCRC features four games, of which one is an enticing season-opener for two teams thinking big.
Auburn visits Ole Miss after both lost their openers last week. Vanderbilt and Kentucky open up their season, while 1-0 LSU visits 1-0 Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss. in an intriguing matchup.
But perhaps the most high-profile among fans of colleges from the Southeastern Conference is Florida at Tennessee.
Dayton Looks to Shake MAC
The Mid-America Conference has officially confirmed that it is part of the ACRC, and the teams in the MAC will be eligible for the ACRC rankings next week.
The MAC had been expected to be a part of the ACRC, but a series of miscommunications, and the machinations of USA Rugby in creating a fall playoff seemed to have the MAC remove itself from the ACRC. However, since the ACRC (American Collegiate Rugby Championship) isn't holding a playoff, and instead is holding a series of optional bowl games in Charlotte, NC in November, being a member requires little commitment.
It's unclear whether MAC teams will play in bowl games, or even play in the USA Rugby playoffs - but they ARE in the ACRC.
Iona v WJU Raises Questions
One of two games between two ranked teams, Iona at Wheeling Jesuit has much to recommend it. First of all, it's a Christian Brothers school (Iona), against a Jesuit school (guess which one that is).
Second, it's a club team that has undergone a major overhaul, mostly thank to the expansion of the coaching staff, against a varsity program that is still developing and growing.
Iona is a group of fairly small players who work hard and play strong defense. Wheeling Jesuit is building its offensive capabilities, and is led by All American Peter Malcolm with lock Zach Reichenbach, recent HS All American Cecil Rich, and some good Californian products to spice things up.
And then there are those rankings. The rankings disagree who is the better team.
The Men DI College Weekend - Our Picks
Goff Rugby Report has a look at this week's Men's DI college games, with a little prediction for each. If there's a link on the game, then we've got a more detailed game preview for that matchup.
We list the rankings for teams that are ranked GRR=Goff Rugby Report DI ranking; ACRC= coaches poll for ACRC; DIA is the DIA poll conduction by USA Rugby. ACRC-HM means the team didn't make the top 20, but was honorable mention.
There are only two games featuring two teams that are ranked - Army v Penn State, and Iona v Wheeling Jesuit.
Here's how we see it all.
