CRAA’s Challenger postseason completed its second iteration and certainly looked like a success.
Teams that don’t make the Round of 16 in the D1A playoffs have an opportunity to be in the D1A Challenger playoffs, and the last two years six teams have opted for that. Two teams took a bye to the semifinals, in this case Davenport and Utah.
As it turned out, the teams with byes did in fact make the final, but it was tough going.
St. Thomas beat Ohio State in the first round to make last Friday’s semifinal in Indianapolis. Santa Clara beat UC Santa Cruz to earn a spot in the final four.
St. Thomas vs Daveport
On Friday at Kuntz Stadium St. Thomas and Davenport produced a classic. The Bobcats unleashed their well-known quick-strike attack. Backed by a superb performance from flanker Owen Phillips and with their halfback combination of Tshepang Matubatuba and Welton Charumbira they torched the Panthers for two tries and a Charumbira penalty goal for a 15-0 lead after 15 minutes.
Davenport were looking at the business end of an old-fashioned Florida whuppin’, but it didn’t happen. The Panthers upped their effort level on defense and got a massive shift from the lock forwards Tamuka Kambani and Patrick O’Day.
Able to bottle up St. Thomas a bit better, Davenport inched closer with a penalty. After that Charumbira was yellow-carded for a challenge in the air, and Davenport took advantage. Fullback Thango Mgidlana and wing Damien Freeman combined to get the Panthers into scoring position, before No. 8 Rayziah Taele powered over.
St. Thomas had chances to score in the first half but came away with nothing. Well, not nothing. They got another yellow card, this time for a high tackle with head contact. Davenport flyhalf Joshua Botha slotted a penalty and it was 15-13.
And then with time up in the first half Mgidlana scampered over.
Down 20-15 St. Thomas struggled to finish their scoring chances. The teams battled back and forth but neither could take control of the match. Each kicked a penalty and it was 23-18 with time ticking away.
That’s when a long period of pressure set it up for Charimbira to race through a gap. The wind smashed down his conversion attempt, but the game was now tied with just the restart left.
But there was the restart left. Davenport got the ball back. They set a ruck about 12 meters inside the St. Thomas half, and spun it wide.
All game long Botha had been trying to find the right gap between the STU defensive line and a blitzing defender shooting up. He was delaying his pass, looking for an opportunity, and now it presented itself. He sent a flatter pass to center Joe Bennie that put him through the gap left by the aggressive defenders. Bennie found Mgidlana, sped down the field, spun out of a tackle, and flipped a back-handed pass to Freeman. The winger race in to score. And that was it, 30-23 for Davenport.
Utah vs Santa Clara
Meanwhile in the other semifinal, Santa Clara and Utah battled to a 14-14 tie at halftime.
Utah’s maul was impressive, however, and led by captain Logan Hawes at lock and a savvy group of backs, they started to put things together. The center pairing of Karsten Seidel and Zander Ward was hard to contain and the Utes started to pull away, eventually winning 42-128—that’s right, a perfect 10-for-10 on conversions for the two teams.
The Final
So that set up the final on Sunday. Davenport came in fairly strongly favored, but they had left most of their seniors home for graduation, and three of their Friday starters, including their two props and flyhalf Botha, went back to Grand Rapids to walk at graduation, also.
This was a thrilling game. Utah gave everything in this match and had Davenport in real trouble.
Davenport opened the scoring in the first minute, with flanker Max Goethals charging down a clearance kick and chasing it down.
But after that Utah had much of the run of play. Their work rate and speed of play had Davenport scrambling. They unleashed their excellent maul to drive over to equalize. Then they took the lead. They caught a bit of a break when flanker Mateo Bresenden charged into contact. He was isolated but Kambani’s attempt to poach the ball was negated because his hands had hit the ground. He backed off, scrumhalf Dylan Saucedo snapped up the ball to send it wide, and an excellent flat ball from Seidel put Ward through.
With the stiff wind at their backs Davenport was not getting full value of their chances. Utah was hugely physical in defense and it took a while for the Panthers to really get going.
With Botha off to get his diploma, scrumhalf Dawson Hovingh was switched to flyhalf, and Josh Pearson took over in the #9 jersey. Both did very well, but Pearson added a new defensive dimension and was strong in contact.
Off a penalty Davenport took a lineout, ran a bit of a play off it, and then Pearson hit Bennie on the charge for the Panthers’ second try.
That tied it up 12-12 and that is how the half ended.
