NCR has their Friday Night featured game again and this week it's a men's small college clash.
Two teams leading the way in the Rocky Mountain Conference, Colorado School of Mines and Denver University, will face off.
The game (kicking off at 7PM Mountain Time) will be live here>>
Denver tied Northern Colorado and that has been their only game of the conference season so far. Aside from that tie UNC has won all their other games, so you can assume that Northern Colorado and Denver are right there in the competitive pecking order. Right there, that is, with Mines, which is 2-0 having beaten Colorado College and, in a very close game, New Mexico Tech. Mines also has played some D2 opposition and while they lost those games, they learned a lot.
“The boys don’t need any extra motivation to get up for the Mines game,” Denver Head Coach Joey Malanka told Joey Knese reporting for NCR. “It’s a really prominent, local derby here.”
“For me, DU has always been the arch-enemy,” Mines Head Coach Anthony Ford told Knese. “From a coaching perspective, it means a lot.”
This isn't the only big game in the mountains, as Northern Colorado plays New Mexico Tech, which is now 2-1. We could be close to a four-way tie among Denver, CSOM, UNC, and NMT.
Who Else Is Strong?
Here's a look at the top teams out of the conferences, and who really shows.
Cardinals Conference
VMI and Hampden-Sydney are both undefeated in the Cardinals Conference. They won't meet each other but the playoffs are looming. However, the problem with this conference, as is the issue with a few more, is forfeits, Hampden-Sydney has won two good results of late but two of their victories are forfeit wins.
For their part VMI has defeated the powerful Christendom College and then Washington & Lee. Caleb Evans has been outstanding for VMI while Nate Mayfield and James Li have also been big scorers for them. Next up for VMI is University of Virginia in a midweek match. Hampden-Sydney is slated to play George Mason but that's expected to be a forfeit given they forfeited earlier and H-S also has the Norfolk Blues men's rugby club scheduled for the same day.
New England
Babson is a national championship contender. They have a big, athletic forward pack and having locks who can run and a No. 8 that knows the game is a bit of a game-changer in small college. Reed Santos is really good at flyhalf and Jack Byszio is very dangerous in the midfield. Colby chases them at 3-1 but Babson has been winning in very convincing fashion, scoring about 66 points per game.
Allegheny
This is an interesting one as Robert Morris, John Carroll, Slippery Rock, and Franciscan are all at the top and unbeaten. And ... guess what! John Carroll plays Slippery Rock this weekend and Robert Morris plays Franciscan.
Colonial Coast
Semifinalists last year Endicott has picked up where they left off, sitting at 4-0. Led by Jordan Chappell, Jaden Carnevale, DeShean Hatton, and Brad DiGiacomo, the Gulls have dominated every game they have played except one, a 21-10 victory over Roger Williams. But it's clear Endicott is the top dog out of this New England conference.
NEWCRC
Springfield leads and in fact has won most of their games by wide margins. With the likes of lock Jacques Desbiens winning ball backs such as Owen Coderre can finish off. This is a team that made the CRC 7s final in the spring and they are building nicely on that.
SCRC
Southeastern Louisiana is 4-0 while Sewanee is 2-0 and plays North Alabama this week.
Great Midwest
UW Eau-Claire has been really strong, especially defensively, and they needed to be in a 7-7 tie with Northern Michigan last week. Scrumhalf Cal Schmitz has been a handful for the opposition and hooker Ryan Mead is playing well doing #2 things but is also the team's goalkicker. Ramse Backus helps lead the defense at flanker.
The tie won't change the playoff situation any for Eau-Claire as their final game is slated to be a forfeit and they will end up 4-0-1, with the #1 seed in the semis.
