The first week of the Northern Lights Men's DII league is in the books and things are already a little shaken up.

It's not really a surprise, that one of the teams from te National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) started well, as St. Johns has been a small college power for some time and was eager to face the tougher competition of the DII league. St. John's beat Wisconsin-River Falls 27-7 in their opener. Defending national DII champs Minnesota-Duluth won their opener 36-7 over North Dakota State (more here).

North Dakota lost all of their league games last season, but opened this year with a 33-17 win over Mankato, a solid team that went 3-3 in the league last year. St. Cloud State beat Bemidji. ANd the team that pushed Duluth the closest last season, Winona State, logged an impressive 52-8 win over St. Thomas to start the season.

Winona ran out to a 38-0 halftime lead and cruised to the victory. Their forward pack controlled the scrums nicely and set up a strong platform from which to launch their attack. All eight Winona State tries came through the backs, with flyhalf Ryan Vargas and fullback Nate Bolger scoring two each. Captain Taylor Freund scored a try and kicked six conversions for a personal haul of 17 points.