James Madison made a big statement in the team’s debut in a DIAA conference, hammering Millersville 71-0 Saturday.

The defending DII 7s champions, JMU exploded out of the blocks with five tries in the first 20 minutes. But after that, Millersville slowed the onslaught a little … if only a little.

“I am pleased we won,” said JMU Head Coach Mark Lambourne. “And certainly I think we have surprised some teams in DI. But we also struggled to keep our concentration and we should have been tighter.”

Lambourne said he was happy with the performance of three freshmen starting in the game, and also JMU got big games from inside center Gabe Harrison, and No. 8 Matt Petrik, who was very active doing the dirty and unglamorous work around the field.

Prop Mo Katz was a big presence, once again, scoring three tries, including a long, thundering trip down the pitch. And lock Joseph Taylor is emerging as a key player in the set piece.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh moved to 2-0 with a 40-20 defeat of Shippensburg. Matt Dunleavy scored three tries for Pitt and Tim Connell, Tom Brunt, and David Zimmerman all touched down, with all but one try successfully converted by Christian Quiros.

After losing big to St. Joe’s last week, Villanova rebounded with an impressive 41-12 win over West Chester. Sean Sawyer scored three tries for ‘Nova while Logan Khelil added two, and Tim Plante and Billy Gordon also touched down. Villanova led early and never looked back.

And then some drama on Friday night, as Temple came back to beat Rutgers 18-15. Center Dan Ponti’s try tied the teams at 10-10, and then after Temple took the lead Rutgers tied it up again. Late in the game, Jeremy Alt knocked over what proved to be the winning points with a penalty kick.