Once again Vermont won big over tough opposition as the final four teams in NCR's Men's D2 competition was finalized Sunday.
But this time, a very, very good Cornell team that had put a massive distance between themselves and their opposition, hung tough with UVM and led 16-11 at halftime thanks to a Tatenda Gonese eightman pick and a Flynn Keller penalty goal helped along by a UVM restart error.
But to their credit, Vermont didn't panic. They moved their way into Cornell's 22 and some hard running put them over. That tied it up. It was sort of the same story for the Catamounts' next try. However, it's worth pointing out that Cornell defended their line for 16 phases over three minutes before Vermont charged over.
That made it 23-16 and the Catamounts never looked back. Once they had the lead they played with a little more flare, and Cornell, mindful of UVM's powerful forwards, were stretched. Vermont 43 Cornell 16.
In Scranton vs Grand Valley State, Scranton had hung in their against Norwich two days before and then pulled it out late. They reasoned, fairly, that they could do it again. It was 10-7 for GVSU going into halftime when wing Kyle Riter cut back inside. He was brought down just before the line but fullback Reinhart Stipp picked up and finished it off.
That was a key score for GVSU and even when Scranton opened the second half with a converted try from center Anthony Vitiello, they remained in front.
Then at 51 minutes from a fairly innocuous scrum in the middle part of the field the Lakers ran a loop move and Stipp cut through, sold a dummy and was gone for 70 meters. Stipp converted his own effort, and a few minutes later it was a kick from him that set up an attacking scrum.
GVSU got to the line and a hard run from No. 8 Aiden Reilly got them over. Conversion good and at 57 minutes Grand Valley State had a three-score lead at 29-14.
And while Scranton did score twice to close the gap, lock Jordan Malone's wild run off a broken lineout play iced it for GVUS 34-26.
