As Close as You Can Get: Navy over Lindenwood
In a battle of wills and constant momentum shifts, the US Naval Academy held off Lindenwood 12-10 to win their D1A semifinal Saturday and book a place in the national final in Houston.
On a pleasant but windy day in Annapolis, Md., the breeze was certainly a factor, but, strangle, all but three of the points on the day were score against the wind.
Playing with the wind at their backs Lindenwood put Navy under pressure early. Within two minutes a Navy infringement offered a penalty goal attempt for Lindenwood's Matteo Pegnion. The scrumhalf booted the over-40-meter kick through the uprights and Lindenwood led 3-0.
Penn State Puts Down Marker in 7s
As CRAA's 15s playoffs loom there's some 7s to be played, as well.
The CRAA 7s Championships will be held concurrently with the 15s finals on May 6-7 in Houston, with both a Men's and a Women's tournament. Who will suit up hasn't been confirmed but it looks like Penn State's men's team will be there after winnign the Big 10 7s this past weekend.
The win was perhaps a little bit of a surprise as Penn State had to get by an Indiana team that had been playing some very good 7s this winter/spring.
Penn State actually pulled off the double, with their B side winning a robust, eight-team B tournament. The PSU Bs beat Purdue, Wisconsin, and Nebraska in pool play (all shutouts) before holding off Michigan 14-7. Andrew Whiteman scored six tries in the four matches.
In the 1st-team bracket, the Nittany Lions beat Purdue 31-12 and Ohio State 33-0.
First-Half Surge Sees USD to ACR Final
The University if San Diego booked their passage to the ACR DIAA final with a 43-26 defeat of Western Washington this past weekend in San Diego.
The Toreros were looking for some measure of revenge after these two met last year in the ACR playoff, with the Vikings coming away 30-17 winners.
USD decided to play with the wind at their back in the first half and the decision paid off early as the Toreros quickly worked into the opposition 22. An initial break from Devin Hoovel got San Diego close the ball was spun wide to Shane Jamison, who beat his opposite, stepped past the final defender and was in for the try.
Spring 2023 D1AA College Rankings for April
Back for April's DIAA rankings for the spring.
Really, the results this spring have shown us that many of these teams are very close to each other. The three semifinals (how can you have three semifinals?!?) this past weekend showed us that. Every game was in doubt late.
South Florida is the big mover since March and while we think Fresno State is pretty great, it's tough to hold onto a #3 when other teams are winning.
Now ... all of this is, ultimately guesswork. Most of these teams don't play each other and now come playoff time they don't play each other. There are two major playoffs going on, with CRAA running a pathway to a final and 3rd-4th game between the top two from the California Conference and the Florida Conference.
Dramatic Comeback Falls Just Short and Iowa State Beats SHSU
Iowa State won their ACR DIAA semifinal this past weekend, defeating San Houston State to make the final in Denver on May 6.
Both teams had won their quarterfinals in nailbiters, with SHSU beating Texas State and Iowa State holding off Minnesota.
All of that set up the semifinal in Houston. On a steamy Texas day, the Cyclones started quickly by putting Sam Houston State under pressure. That pressure led to a turnover and senior flanker Justin Campbell went over the line. Nick Gill was good on the conversion to make it 7-0 Cyclones less than 5 minutes into the match.
Finishers Cap Comeback for FSU in Florida DIAA Final
Florida State capped off their second-straight stirring comeback to win the Florida DIAA collegiate championships Saturday.
Down 19-6 in the first half, and 29-16 in the second half, the Seminoles nevertheless came back. Their bench was enormously influential in the closing minutes, helping FSU overhaul a very good Bulls team 31-29.
Both sides had scoring opportunities early, but the goalline defenses held. Florida State had a kickable penalty 10 minutes in and opted for the lineout. But USF stole that ball, and later got a penalty to get out of trouble. Lesson learned for the Seminoles and when they secured a not-releasing penalty about 26 meters out and in front of the posts, they had no hesitation in pointing to the sticks.
South Florida Takes Control
Center Luca Marfella put the kick through and Florida State was up 3-0.
Norwich Wins NEWCRC 7s
The Norwich University Men's Rugby team took home their fifth straight 7s Conference Championship Saturday by sweeping all four games they played, outscoring opponents 126-17 in the process.
In the NEWCRC championship tournament, the Cadets took on the University of New Hampshire for the first game of the day which they took home a 38-7 victory in pool play. Senior Aiden Maher scored two tries in the first half and Logan Perry getting in a late try before the first half closed. Senior captain Leo Clayburgh converted all three tries.
Rashawn Fraser opened the second half with a lengthy solo run up the middle off the kick-off for another score. Fraser and Clayburgh tallied two more tries apiece in the half.
Finalists for Rudy Scholz Award Named
The finalists for the 2022-2023 Rudy Scholz Award have been selected.
With a massive help from the fans and the teams in college rugby, who help vote for these finalists, the nominee list was whittled down to a finalist group of five players.
Those players are:
Wyatt Parry, BYU
Max Schumacher, Cal
Joe Marchant, Saint Mary's
Lewis Gray, US Naval Academy
Orrin Bizer, Life University
Louisville Wins MAC 7s
Louisville defeated Bowling Green in the final of the Mid American Conference 7s over the weekend.
Many of the knockout games were close, with Louisville edging Pitt 20-14 in the semis. Bowling Green won one of the rare lopsided games, taking their semi 40-7 over Ohio University.
In the final, the two teams changed ends at halftime still tied 0-0. Two tries in the second half saw Cardinals hold off the Falcons 10-0—Aaron Stevenson and Jake Summers got the tries that made the difference.
Ohio, meanwhile, got into the semis by beating Western Michigan and also IUPUI in pool play. Yes they lost 40-7 to Bowling Green and lost by the same margin to Pitt in the 3rd-4th game, but this was a still a very strong showing by OU.
Pitt also secured an impressive finish.
Southern Rugby Conference Runs Two 7s Tournaments
The Southern Rugby Conference hosted two sevens events this past weekend at the campus of East Carolina University.
The first was the NCR Qualifier for small college teams that consisted of a mixture of conference and out-of-conference teams. The second was the SRC D1/D2 Championship. Both were run with the same format of teams playing in a group of four pool with the top two from each advancing to knock out rounds.
In the Small-College division Coastal Carolina, Southeastern Louisiana, Wake Forest, and College of Charleston all cruised to the semis. Coastal and Wake advanced to the finals where Coastal overpowered the Deacons to take the title and earn their spot in the CRC Small College division.
The Chanticleers were dominant on the day out scoring their opposition 202-17.
After Delay, Lindenwood Punches Ticket
Weather delayed Lindenwood vs Life Saturday, the fourth of four quarterfinals scheduled for the day, and so it wasn’t until Sunday that the game was played.
Fortunately Life was able to hang on and play the game on Sunday.
Seeing as the teams had split their season series the game was certainly in doubt, although wince Lindenwood was hosting they had to be favored somewhat. And in fact it turned out to be Lindenwood’s day 29-8.
Lindenwood started the game shoving Life back into their own 22, and three minutes in a clearance kick didn’t find touch and the Lions attacked quickly. It was a simple matter of sending it through the hands to Nic Hardrict II on the left sideline and the wing did the rest, sidestepping around one defender and fedning off another to score in the corner.
Cal, Navy, and BYU Make D1A Semifinals
Navy continued its impressive run as the best of D1A made the final four this weekend.
The Midshipmen defeated Army for the third time this season, this time making it relatively emphatic at 30-6.
“To hold Army without a try for 80 minutes is a combination of a lot of hard work defensively and being disciplined. I thought even though we gave away a number of penalties, we were still disciplined in the right areas of the pitch,” said Navy Director of Rugby Gavin Hickie. “We played tactically really well in terms of executing our set piece, scrums and lineouts. What we did in the second half is what we’ve done all season long. We made it very tough to play against us with our physicality.
Showdown Time in Florida DIAA
Four DIAA college teams will meet up in Houston during CRAA's championship weekend, but before that happens we need to know who will meet whom.
We know the top two from the California DIAA Conference, since Sacramento State beat Fresno State in the conference final last week.
Late Surge Sees Sacramento State Past Fresno State
We know the top two in the Florida DIAA, but not which is #1 and which is #2. Florida State will take on South Florida in Manatee, Fla. on Saturday.
These two teams played back in January 21. In that matchup South Florida defeated Florida State 25-19. However, that result was vacated and it became a 20-0 forfeit win for FSU because USF inadvertently fielded an inelligible player.
Few Foregone Conclusions in Exciting D1A Quarterfinals
By Sunday we will have our last four D1A teams in what has been the most competitive D1A season of the last several years, likely ever.
As we mapped out in this article: What the First Round of D1A Playoffs Told Us the games among these eight quarterfinalists have been very close. You really can't point to any game that was especially one-sided.
Here's out look at the quarterfinals in video and in print:
So What's The Deal on This World Univ. Invitational Team?
College programs are scratching their heads at an initiative to put together a World Universities Invitational team for this September.
Thomas Clark, who works in various capacities in the game (NCR, New England Free Jacks, Mystic River, St. John's HS) is running the push to field a team at the tournament, which will be held in France in September, concurrently with the Rugby World Cup.
But the timing stinks, and college coaches have made no bones about pointing that out. Rugby East coaches were asked to submit players, and the response from some of them was: why would we want our players to play somewhere else in the middle of the season? Why, in addition, would we want them to miss school for this?
GRR spoke to Clark about it and he said there is some additional context that makes the plan not quite so ... problematic.
