Wheeling once again won the NCR CRC 7s Men’s Premier bracket, taking this trophy for the third time in a row.
The Cardinals edged Dartmouth 14-12 in the final, the fifth straight game for the Big Green that was decided by a try or less.
For their part, Wheeling stormed through their opening rounds, shutting out Indiana Tech 45-0 and running past Utah State 38-10. In the quarterfinals they met a tough-minded Belmont Abbey side that had beaten Southern Virginia 19-10.
Shadreck Mandaza was, as he was all weekend, huge for Wheeling and his two tries paced the Cardinals over Belmont Abbey to make the semis.
There they would meet a very good Kutztown team. KU had broken Indiana hearts again, overcoming two Luke Peters tries with a late Lasa Asaidze try (his second of the game) to win 17-12. Not quite as nervy as nerves-inducing as Dartmouth, Kutztown would see all but one game on their slate within a try. This included a wild Round of 16 win over Brown in which the Bears scored in the final minute to tie it, and then scored in OT to win 22-17.
In that semifinal between Wheeling and Kutztown, the Bears opened the scoring midway through the first half through Luka Jansen Van Vurren. But two Alex Nyamunda tries late in the first half put Wheeling ahead 12-5. They held onto the lead even after a Benedict Quinn try, and then Mandaze sealed it late.
On the other side of the bracket, Dartmouth needed OT and late-game heroics to get by Michigan, AIC, and St. Bonaventure. In the semis, Notre Dame held a slim 7-5 lead into the final minutes. Dartmouth were camped out in the Notre Dame half and had what they thought was the go-ahead try called back for a knock-on (it was close). Richard Wofford was a constant threat for Dartmouth, but in the end, following a rather pointless penalty for not rolling by Notre Dame, Dartmouth found Jamie Phillips out wide and he was in at the corner.
Dartmouth 10 Notre Dame 7.
In the final, Dartmouth know they had to defend and put Wheeling under pressure, and while many would ay Wheeling was the faster team, Wofford dummied his way between two defenders and showed a clean pair of heels as he outpaced Mandaza for a try from 85 meters.
But that old momentum-killer reared its head again as Dartmouth’s restart did not go 10 meters. Instead of kicking deep and using their D, the Big Green gave Wheeling a free kick at midfield, and the Cardinals made no mistake with Nyamunda speeding in.
That tied the game 7-7. Dartmouth threatened again with skipper and halfback Rocky Dutta stepping his way through the defense. Finally, off a scrum, Dartmouth ran hands out to Rocky Schlager for their second try and a 12-7 lead.
Dartmouth’s defense was impressive, but Wheeling’s connections also weren’t perfect and they struggled to make their possession count. When they simplified things it went better, and a sneaking pick-and-go from Nyamunda on a very narrow weak side—so narrow no one was marking it, put him through.
Mandaza slotted the very difficult conversion and it was 14-12 with a little over two minutes remaining.
But Dartmouth lost the restart receipt forward and never saw the ball again. Wheeling kept it, even as they were backed up, and the game ended on a long kick-and-chase that saw the ball roll dead. Wheeling were champions again.
Kutztown took down Notre Dame 24-12 for 3rd. They lost just the one game, to Wheeling. Also just one-loss was Walsh, which lost to Notre Dame in the quarters and beat St. Bonaventure and Belmont Abbey to take 5th. Brown took 9th, beating Wingate, SVU, and Clemson on the way, so they also lost just the once, 22-17 to Kutztown.
This was, overall, a very competitive competition. About 35% of the games were decided by a try or less (and that’s not counting the games that had a try late that moved it past the one-score threshhold). But that percentage gets closer to 50% when we only look at the main elimination games and don’t count the consolation rounds.
The seeding at this tournament was very strong.
