Men's College: Some Cross-Divisional Surprises
Men's College: Some Cross-Divisional Surprises
Saturday’s Men’s D1 and crossover games provided a few on-paper upsets and close surprises as teams started to get moving after a long layoff.
Marian University lost to Iowa Central CC—that wasn’t a surprise, but what was a surprise was how close Marian made the game. Iowa Central ran out to a 24-9 lead, saw Marian charge back to make it 24-21, and then the Tritons scored a late try to take it to 29-21.
“We played two great matches,” said Marian Head Coach John Harley—the B-side score was 27-15 for Iowa Central. “We are building tremendous momentum with our freshmen and sophomores. Our team trusts the Marian Rugby process and gets better every week. Thanks to Brent Nelson and Iowa Central for hosting us.”
For Iowa Central, their wide game paid dividends at times, but they were a little inconsistent. Jeremiah Bates came off the bench to score two key tries.
“His energy made a huge difference,” said Nelson. “Our lineout defense was really good today. It did hurt us not having a couple of starters, but that’s not to take anything away from Marian. They were opportunistic and made the right adjustments when they needed to. Mad respect for John Harley and his crew.”
Tennessee defeated Ohio State in a DIAA vs DIA clash 30-23. Vols props Kevin Thomas and Braxton Heard led a strong forward effort, especially in the scrums. Lock Greg Janowick scored two tries to set the tone while fullback Josh Shelter was solid in what was a very good in for Tennessee.
UNC Wilmington, a DII team, beat DIAA NC State 19-12, putting the rest of the Southern Conference on notice.
Louisville and Kentucky battled in a close one that was only 7-0 UK at halftime. Kentucky pulled away slightly 26-12.
Bowling Green’s overall team speed overwhelmed University of Michigan’s size to win 42-17, while their MAC rivals Western Michigan were beaten by University of Notre Dame 19-10 (earlier we had this score reversed; apologies for that).
Army beat Queen’s University - we have more on that game here: Queens Pushes Army in Non-Conference Clash
