Mary Washington Edges Ohio State in Solid Outing for Two Changed Teams

11.17.2025College Men

Mary Washington vs Ohio State Nov 15, 2025. Photo David Hughes.

Mary Washington defeated Ohio State 25-17 over the weekend in a cross-conference meeting of two teams that, last year, were in CRAA's new Challenge Cup postseason.

OSU and UMW, in fact, met in the 2024-25 Challenge Cup semifinals, which Mary Washington winning and going on to defeat Grand Canyon in the Challenge Cup final.

This game, then, was an interesting measuring stick with an Ohio State team with a lot of young players ans a relatively new coaching setup, and a Mary Washington team that has undergone some changes and has a new coach.

UMW took a lead after five minutes when Nick White forced a turnover and Ben Peters popped a well-weighted kick for David Fitzgerald to chase down. RJ Berlington converted and it was 7-0.

Both sides had chances to score after that, and then about 20 minutes into the match UMW was threatening. But they were penalized for a clearout coming in from the side. OSU took a lineout at midfield and ran through several phases before center Gavin Krock sold a dummer and took off on a 25-meter run. He was dragged down but the support was there. And after automatically passing off the base of the ruck phase after phase, scrumhalf Mark French picked up and went himself to score under the posts. Conversion good and the game was tied 7-7.

Quickly after that, UMW powered down the left tramlines. Aiden Hayward broke through a couple of tackles more than once and finished with a rollicking run to score and made it 12-7.

Berlington ended the first half with a penalty goal from about 40 meters out to put the score at 15-7 at the break,

A pass miscue from Mary Washington gave the Buckeyes the chance to attack from the scrum. They did, and eventually got a penalty in the breakdown,

Jayden Williams tapped quickly to get OSU into the Mary Washington 22, and then the forwards swooped in. With a penalty advantage for killing the ball in effect, the Buckeyes shipped the ball quickly to Krock, who charged over.

Fullback Tommy Kilbane converted and it was 15-14.

But Mary Washington started to pull away after that.

Mary Washington vs Ohio State Nov 15, 2025. Photo David Hughes.

Ohio State

FINAL

11.15.25

Mothers

Berlington added another penalty goal and after that Ben Peters set up Charlie Platt for a run and then Platt passed to Tom Howard, who raced on for 35 meters.

Howard had Peters in support and a pop off the deck put Peters in under the posts. Jack Joyce added the conversion to make it 25-14.

Kilbane smacked over a 40-meter penalty to get his side within eight points, but that was it. UMW had the lion's share of the field position for the remainder of the game. They opted for posts on a penalty and Joyce hit the post, but the overall story of the final minutes was Mary Washington doing enough to kill the clock.

Both teams will be in the Fall Classic in December to wrap up their fall.

"It was a good back-and-forth game," said UMW Head Coach Andrew Spencer. "We knew this result would not look like last spring’s Challenge Cup semifinal. Big credit to the Ohio State coaching staff. I think they have improved a lot during this fall and have a bright future ahead."

For the Mothers, Spencer said his team has become more physical and more connected on defense, and on attack their set piece has improved.

"That has led to cleaner platforms for our backs to work from," said Spencer. "The biggest improvement overall has been the buy-in to work hard as a team and face adversity together, not individually. We had two yellow cards during the second half which stressed our defense but we only conceded a penalty goal during those sin-bins. Our attacking structure has been improving the last few weeks but we still feel like we haven’t played our best 80 minutes yet. We look forward to the challenge at the Fall Classic and are focused on improving our consistency in execution leading up to that match."

Mary Washington 25
Tries: Fitzgerald, Hayward, Peters
Convs: Joyce 2
Pens: Joyce 2

Ohio State 17
Tries: French, Krock
Convs: Kilbane 2
Pens: Kilbane