Many of the major college games this weekend were really scrimmages, but there were some straight results we want to bring you.
Navy beat Mount St. Mary's in a game that was way, way closer than the score makes it appear.
Navy took an early 3-0 lead but they weren't finding a lot of scoring chances. The Mount scored on a big break and some quick hands to the edge, and that was certainly the formula. Navy reacted by hitting them as hard as possible and taking away time. MSM hung tough and held that 5-3 lead until about 10 minutes left in the first half. Navy then got a break out of nothing from Drew Baublitz. The wing beat his man and sidestepped the cover to go 80 meters for a try. That made it 8-5 and that's how the first half ended.
There was no panic in Navy and that, probably, is why they finished so strongly. Even when the Mount threatened to score on a long break, Navy made the tackles and just barely hung on. The breakthrough came about midway through the second half. Baublitz fielded a clearance kick and raced and barreled his way to within a couple of meters from the line. The forwards took it over from there. That made it 15-5 with Roanin Krieger's conversion. MSM answered with a penalty, so it was still a one-score game at 15-8.
The final 12 minutes was all Navy. They worked phase after phase after phase before Avion Ganse, who had slid to the scrumhalf position, picked up and sniped through. Krieger was good on the kick,
Moments later Navy worked a backline move off a scrum with Jake Cornelius and JD Bengston to put Bengston through. Kick good. And then a couple of minutes later they ran a different play off the scrum but the result was the same, with Bengston going over. Krieger kicked the conversion again and it was 36-8.
That's how it ended, but it's fair to say, with the score 15-8 at 67 minutes, the game was far more difficult for Navy than the final score might indicate.
"Anyone on our team has the capability to bring the tempo and lay the boom to flip momentum. It just takes one person to set the tone and everyone else will feed off it. Every week we pride ourselves on winning the collision piece, as soon as we got in our rhythm, everybody started having a good time," said center Max Smith, who brought some intense physicality to the team.
"The match is 80 minutes," said Navy Head Coach Gavin Hickie. "You'll never win a match in just the first half. We do look for certain things in the first half to grind down the opposition. We have significant depth this year, more than years prior, this allows us to get other guys on the pitch that can affect the game in different ways. We're very mindful of the way we approach games, we look for a certain performance in the first 40 minutes, then a different performance in the second 40 minutes."
Southern Virginia beat James Madison 78-0 thanks to a big debut game from freshman center Ammon Key.
Belmont Abbey were tested nicely by Clemson, but held on to win 17-10. Tries from Hayden Mousley, capping of some good offloads and quickball, and Luis Fahey, off an eightman shove, with one Harrison Tu'isiva conversion, staked the Crusaders to a 12-0 halftime lead. The second try was scored with a Clemson Tiger in the sin bin.
In the second half, Belmont Abbey scored right off the restart, as fullback Brennan Watt fielded a clearance kick and weaved his way 55 meters to score. That made it 17-0.
Clemson was able to pressure Belmont Abbey and when they got a penalty in front of the posts flyhalf Quinn Vorster put it through for three points. A good kick chase and a penalty resulted with a try for Pete Hayes to make it 17-8. Vorster converted, but Belmont Abbey was able to hold on from there.
