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09.25.2023College Men
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iona v fairfield 2023 coolrugbyphotos

Big doings in the Liberty Conference as league-leaders Fairfield were upended by Iona in the NCR D1 conference.

The 24-16 victory put Iona at 1-0 and dropped Fairfield to 3-1 and opened things up in the conference.

Iona started slowly and Head Coach Paul Burke lamented the unforced errors that undercut their attack. But that was start-of-the-season rust. Iona's season has not started particularly quickly what with the Liberty season presenting them with a bye in the second week, and the first week resulting in no game due to lightning. So here the Gaels were, opening their season in late September. Clearly it took a few minutes to get it all to come together.

Fairfield ran out to a 16-0 lead and seemed to be in control.

"It was a really big gut-check for us to come back from 16-0 down," said Burke.

Tighthead prop Kian McGeever, flanker and captain Conor Byrne, and fullback James Phelps led the way as Iona scored four tries to overhaul Fairfield.

Meanwhile, the other team that lost out on that lightning game was Siena, which did get a game against Syracuse last week and this week faced off with 1-0 AIC. Wing Rory Wood scored three tries and Sennen Grove added two as Siena beat AIC 32-26 to move to 2-0.

Dartmouth is also at 2-0, and had a bye, while Brown went to 2-0 with a tough-minded 17-0 shutout of Syracuse.

So it is crowded at the top with Fairfield still very strong, Brown, Dartmouth, and Siena 2-0, and Iona having made a statement with their victory. AIC is certainly not out of it, and a team to watch is potentially Fordham. Having lost two games by very clim margins, Fordham took down Northeastern 47-17 to move to 1-2. But its. 1-2 with two close-loss bonus points and they are nowhere near out of it.

Latest NCR D1 Liberty standings (unofficial)

Liberty D1WLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Fairfield31013155762014
Dartmouth2008821672010
Siena2007833452010
Brown20071071109
Fordham120775225127
Nazareth1206493-29217
AIC1103943-4116
Iona10024186105
Harvard12038126-88105
Syracuse0303592-57112
Northeastern03038151-113000

Liberty D1AA 

Yale has started very well and moved to 3-0 after a fairly dominant win over Rhode Island. BC and UMass also posted big scores, both playing West Division teams. UMass hammered 1-0 Colgate 65-7, while Boston College defeated previously 2-0 Binghamton 48-7 after a big game from flanker Will Roberts and wing Patrick McMahon scored four tries.

So what that seems to show is that the East Division has the run of play over the West.

Liberty D1AA EastWLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Yale30010520852014
UMass20015271452010
Boston College2001037962010
Rhode Island1102454-30004
UConn0101417-3011
          
Liberty D1AA WestWLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Binghamton2108058222010
Colgate1103665-29105
Buffalo010033-33000
Columbia0201560-45000
Stony Brook0200116-116000

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