Four Big D1 College Games on a Friday Night
Four Big D1 College Games on a Friday Night
Friday evening saw four Men's D1 college games, with one of them going down to the wire.
Adrian vs Marian
These two Big Rivers sides were in a tense battle Friday night. Adrian ran out to an early lead. A turnover and long run from Apenisa Sailo started the Bulldogs off and then a nice pass from hooker Max Miller off a two-on-one got wing Sione Mamata right to the line before scrumhalf Jack Stephens picked up and was over. Down 10-0 Marian responded with some snappy ballhandling out to wing Zach White. He made it 10-5.
Adrian came right back with some powerful running and interplay by centers Petelo Vatuvei and Sailo before flanker Matagi Fa'avale got the last pass and charged over. The conversion was good and it was 17-5. Marian ended the half pounding at the Adrian line, got a penalty, tapped and ran, and were ultimately held up to end the half.
Adrian's physicality and pressure on defense made it tough going for Marian, and that pressure finally popped a ball loose in the tackle, the ball was toed ahead, and then flyhalf Quinn Murray snapped up the ball and was in under the posts. Now the Bulldogs were up 22-5. Marian didn't panic and kept up their more methodical phase-by-phase attack. That approach forced a penalty which led to a lineout and the forwards bashing it over through prop Joseph Romero. Adrian was also yellow-carded for infringing during their attempted defensive stand. Tommaso Lorenzetti slotted the conversion and it was 22-12.
Adrian came right back with a try through the forwards, Fa'avale crashing over for his second. Marian opened up their attack a little and tested the edges before finishing it off with the forwards. Hooker Daniel Riecke's try and Lorenzetti's conversion put the Knights within eight with a 27-19 scoreline with 12 minutes to go.
Marian absorbed some Adrian attacking chances for much of the remaining 12 minutes, biding their time. But eventually they didn't have enough time. A penalty and a lineout for the Knights set up a chance for Lorenzetti to ghost through a pretty huge gap in the Adrian defense. He made no mistake, and then converted to make it 27-26. Adrian then kicked off straight past the dead ball line, meaning the game kept going with a scrum at midfield. Adrian infringed after that and Marian then had an attacking lineout in the Adrian 22. There was still time on the clock, but the lineout throw was called not straight. Adrian won the resulting scrum and kicked to touch to end the game.
It was a stirring comeback by Marian but ultimately not quite enough, and they will be ruing a couple of momentum-shifting tries they gave up.
Marian drops to 0-2 in Big Rivers Conference play, although both losses have been close. Adrian goes to 1-0.
Penn State vs Mount St. Mary's
Penn State got their first victory in the Rugby East with a 32-0 shutout of Mount St. Mary's. Penn State started with two penalty goals from Dalton Musselman before Adam Bilbo got the first try. That made it 11-0 and that's how the half ended.
Stephen Hoey broke through early in the second half and as the forwards consolidated, Bilbo touched down his second. Musselman converted for a lead of 18-0.
Bilbo got his third after Musselman broke through, fed Nick Bruno, and he offloaded to the hooker for his hat trick. Zach Ottinger capped the game off with Penn State's fourth try and Lorenzo Zamel converted to finished it 32-0.
It was a strong showing for Penn State, while the Mount has some work to do at 1-2.
Life University vs Kennesaw State
This was the Adisi team for Life—the team of generally younger players. After battling against the Life 1st side for some weeks, the Adisi side won comfortably over the Owls, with several players making a claim for more playing time. Hector Porta Sanchez had a big day and so did Adam Chadwick.
Notre Dame vs Michigan
This was an interesting matchup in that Notre Dame hosted Michigan last week. This time they played at Ann Arbor. This was a deal set up between the coaches—Notre Dame's Justin Hickey and Michigan's Matt Trenary are friends—whereby they would play each other on each school's Homecoming Weekend. The result was that both home sides were pretty fired up. Notre Dame won 40-0 last week, and this week the Fighting Irish won again but this time it was 24-5.
"They made us earn it that’s for sure," said Hickey. "We knew we had to play better than last week. This was a unique experience to play two weeks in a row."
Notre Dame defended very well and Michigan really struggled to get out of their half in the first half. But the Irish only got over once to lead 5-0 at the break.
"We started to get some decent possession down in their end in the second have and were able to grind it out," added Hickey. "They made some really good adjustments against us."
Michigan keyed on danger man Sean Moran and did well to keep him from hurting them too much, but Moran did score a try, as did Jack Wilson, Chase Pierce, and Will Lavender.
Tighthead porp Pierce was a force on the day while locks Tommy Smith and Mike McClamroch have been huge for the Irish. Football player turned flanker turned hooker Ethan Zainea is coming into his own and had one of this better games for Notre Dame.
