Notre Dame College defeated AIC 24-14 Sunday at Bowling Green University to take the Eastern DIAA semifinal and book a spot in the national final May 7 in Moraga, Calif.

The Falcons downed the Yellow Jackets by playing a physical, aggressive game both on offense and defense, and didn’t allow their dangerous backs to operate in space.

NDC opened the scoring after getting a penalty in midfield. The Falcons took the lineout and ran a play almost identical to their opening try the day before - a simple over-under backline move that allowed Roneil Reynolds to burst onto the pass on the wing and go in at the corner.

NDC’s defense continued to hit AIC hard, but so did their runners.

NDC in blue, AIC in white and yellow. Kevin Mercer photos.

“We looked to run at them, not around them, to make them tackle us,” said Notre Dame College Head Coach Jason Fox. “We wanted them to get tired of tackling us.”

AIC replied fairly soon after. They worked their backs and quick offloads to discombobulate the NDC defensive structure, and then popped a box kick downfield. Adrian Ray and Christian Adams chased and bottled up Marcus Tupuola, forcing a ruck penalty. From that lineout ran the forwards off one phase and than back to flanker and Scholz Award finalist Gavan D’Amore-Morrison for the try. Lui Sitama hit the difficult conversion for the 7-5 lead.

The opportunities were still there for AIC, but little mistakes started to creep into their game. Some good, low hits from NDC stopped one one chance, and D’Amore-Morrison seemed in for his second, but the pass to him was forward.

Those missed chances started to instill a sense of urgency and anxiousness in the AIC approach. Meanwhile, Notre Dame College continued to pound into the AIC midfield defense.

The Falcons continued to pressure, and then the penalties started to pile up. After one call for not releasing the tackled player, AIC center Adrian Ray bounced the ball in frustration. That act got him ten minutes in the sin bin, and Logan Weinstock slotted a penalty to put his side ahead 8-7.

More pressure produced another Weinstock kicking opportunity and he was good on that attempt, too, to make it 11-7. AIC had some penalties too. Sitama missed a long range kick, and after that the Yellow Jackets started, perhaps mistakenly, to think tries, not points.

Back on the field, Ray made NDC pay and scored AIC’s second try for a 14-11 Yellow Jackets lead. But the punishing running approach of NDC started to tell. 

Corey Graham picked up a loose ball and raced down the sidelines to put Notre Dame up 18-14. Tupuola intercepted a pass and seemed set to go all the way, but as he shifted the ball from one hand to the other he almost dropped it, giving the AIC cover defense time enough to drag him down.

Still, another penalty in the ruck against AIC, and Weinstock added the three points for a 21-14 lead.

AIC had penalty chances, too, but as time wound down, they got more frustrated, opted for lineouts over penalty kicks, and NDC defense, combined with AIC mistakes, meant they came to nought. They also had a few other scoring opportunities, but it seemed as if there was just one little error, or one little penalty infraction, that killed the mood.

Weinstock kicked three more to finish off the game.

In the end it was a knock-down, drag0out contest between two teams that are used to running and gunning. The Notre Dame College front row of Alec Janotka, John Santiago, and St. Ignatius (Ohio) product Aidan Carr set the tone and put in a full day’s work, and the midfield of Zack Forro and Rodney Thomas was again very effective.

For AIC, D’Amore-Morrison was in the middle of everything the Yellow Jackets did, and prop Jamal Hadley was a strong presence. Scrumhalf Kurtis Werner had a ton of work to get through, and did so, but we didn’t see the explosiveness in the AIC backs we usually see. The same could be said of Notre Dame College, but they were tactically more successful, and showed perhaps the benefit of a season where they played several DIA opponents and had to battle through, while AIC, in 14 straight wins before Sunday’s loss, had exactly two opponents who were closer than 20 points.

“We’re excited,” said Fox. “Defense wins championships, and we needed a good defensive effort. [Assistant Coach] Terry Han wasn’t happy with our forwards’ effort yesterday and met with them last night and told them they needed to step it up. And they did.”

Notre Dame College 24
Tries: Reynolds, Graham
Convs: Weinstick
Pens: Weinstock 4

AIC 14
Tries: D'Amore-Morrison, Ray
Convs: Sitama 2