D1A East Bracket: Who Made it Through?
D1A East Bracket: Who Made it Through?
The home teams held on to advance in the Eastern Bracket of the D1A playoffs and defense was part of the story.
Winning teams held their opponents to a total of five tries. That doesn't mean the games weren't competitive. One was a major runaway, but for the most part the lower seeds provided a tough challenge.
Army vs Mount St. Mary's
GRR called this game the potential upset game and indeed it was the closest of the Eastern playoff games. On a rainy afternoon in West Point, Howie Heller's early penalty goal gave Army a 3-0 advantage. After that the Mount spent a good portion of the seven minutes inside the West Point half. They finally came away with an Evan Corbett penalty, but overall Army weathered the storm.
Then it was Army's turn to put pressure on in the opposing half. MSM defended well, and a Heller attempt at goal drifted wide.
Army caught a bit of a break after that. A grubber just bounced past Bastian Bruenllo of MSM. He reached up and just touched it with his hand, than ran back to pick up the ball and kick clear. But he had touched the ball outside the 22 and then kicked directly into touch from inside the 22—taken back in; Army lineout close to the MSM line. Of course they mauled it. Somehow the Mount St. Mary's forwards got their bodies under the ball.
No try, and an indication of how the players understood how important every scoring opportunity would be.
Mount continued to defend and two more maul attempts by Army were stymied. It was not massively open rugby, but it was powerful and dramatic. The Mount turned the tables when Army fumbled a kick and with lock DJ Johnson and scrumhalf Saige Calvo playing well the Black Knights were backed up. But when lock Landin Jacon-Duffy forced a holding-on penalty, momentum shifted again. Army attacked off the lineout, got another penalty, and this time the maul did the job. It was 34 minutes into the game and we had our first try. That made it 8-3.
MSM looked like they might go into the halftime break without sustaining further damage, but with time essentially up on the clock, Heller launched a box kick and, on the chase, center Cort Schmidlin isolated flyhalf Logan Wild and forced him to hold on illegally. Another penalty, another lineout, and once more the maul was over. This was a huge score for Army as they now had a two-score leading going into the break.
Ten minutes into the second half Mount St. Mary's had a prime scoring chance and ran a maul close to the line, but when they broke off Schmidlin was there to make the tackle and hold MSM up in-goal. The Mount kept up the pressure; Corbett missed a penalty but the Mountaineers kept on coming; finally a high tackle on center (and GRR intern) James Stelluti allowed MSM to kick for the lineout. This time they had the maul off-center from Army's defense and Ray McGettigan was over.
Now the score was 13-8 with less than 20 minutes to go. There followed an epic period with Army on the MSM goalline and the Mount defending and holding strong. It was brutal stuff and after phase-following-phase of the big guys bashing at each other, scrumhalf Issac Gamboa sent it wide and Heller sliced through to score. He got the conversion, too, and Army led 20-8. Back came Army and when MSM was penalized—basically for being a bit too desperate to defense—the maul marched on over.
Time was not the friend of Mount St. Mary's but they finally got Hayden McKay to get over. They drop-kicked the conversion to save time to make it 25-15, but there really wasn't enough time to do any more. It was a slugfest, and MSM did themselves credit in difficult conditions, but homefield advantage matters, and Army had it. The Knights weathered some pressure and Schmidlin had a couple of big defensive plays to help Army win.
Playoff wins are just a bit sweeter pic.twitter.com/hd457ZCAr5
— Army Men’s Rugby (@ArmyWP_MRugby) April 5, 2025
Life vs Davenport
In a time when many D1A games have been very close, sometimes surprisingly so, Life University decided to unleash it all on the Davenport Panthers. The result was a 92-7 shellacking. It was only 5-0 17 minutes in, that try coming off a maul, but the second try for Life really hurt Davenport as it was called a penalty try for collapsing the maul and the Panthers also collected a yellow card. With the man advantage Life countered on a kick. Bradley Crane cut through, found Logan Ballinger, who fed scrumhalf Bautista Araujo.
The kick counter proved fruitful once more. Wing James Rose fielded a box kick, cut on an angle across the field and used his reach to fend off tacklers and raced in on his own. A brilliant try and it was 26-0. At even strength Life had a little more difficulty but they did get one over, working a play off the lineout to set up Kade Cunningham. And then just before halftime Philani Simamane intercepted a Davenport pass and cruised in from 75 meters. Crane was good on five of six conversion attempts and it was 40-0 at halftime.
That was basically the ballgame. Life went on to score more, but really it was that second part of the first half that broke the game open.
Navy vs Penn State
The Nittany Lions scored just a few minutes into this game and that might have been the best thing for the Midshipmen. They opened up their attack from there. A nice high ball from Avion Ganse for No. 8 Ian Bullock and then an interception and race to paydirt from AJ Young got the Mids on top. They got one more to take a 19-7 into halftime.
Young continued to test the Penn State defenders and he tiptoed down the sideline, retaining a strong position so he wouldn't be pushed into touch, and that helped extend Navy's lead. Max Smith chipped ahead for himself, gathered the ball, was taken down but not held, and managed to get up and score an impressive individual effort. Smith did a keeper a few minutes later and that made it 45-7 with Roanin Krieger's fifth conversion.
That's how it ended. Powerful and controlled up front, Navy showcased a little champagne rugby at times and made a bit of a statement.
Lindenwood vs Arkansas State
These two teams know each other well and played in November. In fairly difficult weather conditions this was a relatively low-scoring game. Arkansas State looked to play in Lidnenwood's half and did that quite well. Lindenwood, for their part, have been working toward playing more expansive rugby, and did that ... perhaps to their detriment. Running with the ball was the goal, but maybe not when it's pouring down with rain, and cold, and you're on your own 22. So that created a few nailbiting moments, but the Lions did take a 12-0 lead.
That's when the lightning hit. Both teams had to stop playing, and during that time Head Coach Josh Macy urged his players to maybe tighten it up a bit.
"I said 'we really admire your intent, but let's be smart about it,'" Macy told GRR. "We got smarter."
Arkansas State did actually score right after the lightning break, but a more controlled Lindenwood put the game away 24-7 in the second half. Key to all of that was the scrum. With poor conditions sometimes leading to some handling errors, props Chad Tinney and Connor "The Terminator" Devos (products of Bixby HS and The Woodlands, respectively) controlled the scrum. Devos crumpled a few opponents nicely. In the second half, with reserves on, the maul became a good weapon and one trundled for 30 meters.
So next week will see Army at Life and Lindenwood at Navy.
