St. Bonaventure needed overtime to beat a very strong Notre Dame College, but did the job in winning the NDC 7s Saturday.

Both SBU and Notre Dame College dominated their pool games, and were just as impressive in the knockout rounds. NDC beat Miami 50-0 in the semis, while Bona beat Big XII winners West Virginia 31-7.

The final was a wild one. Phil Jackling raced in for a try for Bonnies, and Jordan Farrant added another, and it seemed like it might be a rout. But Notre Dame finally struck with a long break by Marcus Tupuola with three minutes left in the first half to make it 14-7 (the teams were playing ten-minute halves in the final). On the last play of the half, with an SBU man in the sin bin, Cory Graham made a brilliant individual effort to tie it up 14-14 at halftime. 

Bonnies’ Christian Artuso sent a long pass to Dan Dillon to set up a try and NDC countered with a long break from Graham and an offload to Zack Forro in support to tie it once again, now at 21-21. But still there was more to come. 

Cory Graham then broke free again to make it 26-21, and then added the conversion, as he had for the previous three tries. SBU replied with Jackling. The conversion was missed, so the Falcons led 28-26, but not for long as Farrant capped off a nice long movement from Bonnies to make it 33-28.

On the ensuing kickoff with 10 sec remaining, NDC kept possession of the ball as time expired and moved the ball to space where Tupuola found Rodney Thomas on the end to score in the corner with no time remaining. The conversion was short, and the teams remained tied at 33-33.

So on to sudden death overtime. Bonnies started the OT one man short due to a red card given at the end of regulation. But after a few mistakes by NDC and great defense by SBU, the Bonnies forwards secured possession. A break and a penalty then allowed Artuso to take a pass and go in for the game-winner. The teams had, by then, played nearly 25 minutes of 7s rugby.

“It was a huge team effort,” said SBU Coach Tui Osborne. “The boys dug deep to win with six players.”

Eamon Matthews was the lynchpin of the team and it was his decision-making as much as anything else that got St. Bonaventure through.

For Notre Dame College, it was another close loss coming on the heels of their loss in the CRC Qualifier at the Las Vegas Invitational. 

“Not to take away from a great effort from a very well coached and athletic Bona team,” said NDC Coach Jason Fox, “but I think that NDC did not play as well as they did in Las Vegas. It is tough to travel for almost a week, lose the way we did in Las Vegas, and come home to win your own tournament..”  

Notre Dame College were without Roniel Reynolds and Cian Grandon due to injury.

Fox, though, warned tat St. Bonaventure will be a team to watch at the national championships in Cary, NC. 

“Bonaventure really deserved the win,” he said. “They are a team that can play with anyone!”

Notre Dame College looks ahead now to the DIAA 15s playoffs, but while they haven’t won the last two tournaments, certainly they have done enough to warrant a serious look as an at-large team.