We have the final 16 men's D2 college teams now that the play-ins are done.
Here's what happened.
Scranton 35 Virginia 28
The theme of today's action is, generally, that teams that have more challenging schedules tend to be a little bit more prepared for the playoffs. Thus the MARC #3 beat the Cardinals #1 because, in part, Scranton has played Lehigh, East Stroudsburg, TCNJ, Bloomsburg, Bucknell, Villanova, Georgetown, and UMBC.
Anthony Vitiello, Daniel Sheahan, Liam Morrissey, and Aidan Guarnuccio all scored tries for Scranton and Sean Comiskey added three conversions and three penalty goals for 15 points.
Loyola 34 MSU Mankato 21
Same story, to a certain extent, here with Loyola being the #3 team in the Great Midwest. Mankato ran hard and caused Loyola significant problems. Led by No. 8 Paxton Pagel's powerful carries Mankato punished Loyola for some missed scoring opportunities. But as the game wore on Loyola's strength in the scrum and their fitness started to show.
"We had some white-line fever," said Loyola CoachSal Carfagno, whose team was hit with injuries mid-season, forcing some positional shifts. "But we're starting to come into our structure. We are getting our lineup set and some good, hard games under our belt. Every time we play a game we get better. Mankato was one of the best teams we've played."
All of that led to Loyola coming back from two scores down to win.
Alex Van Ness stepping in nicely. Normally a center he has had to move to flyhalf and has done well there. No. 8 Zack Nkadi has moved to inside center and he has embraced the move. With Van Ness and explosive runner Zach Bowles at outside center, Loyola has three tough runners in the inside backline.
With Demetri Karris tackling everyone within reach, Loyola now looks ahead to Montana State in the Round of 16.
Vermont 31 USMMA 10
In another example of a team ranking lower in a conference but following a tougher schedule, Vermont beat Kings Point by taking the better of a series of kicking exchanges. The Merchant Marine Academy would have liked to handle the ball better, and saw several possession end in scrums for the Catamounts.
