The Great Midwest is down to four teams now and things worked out basically how we expected in last weekend’s quarterfinals.
The home teams, meaning the higher-seeded teams, won three of the four games. The #1 seeds Northern Iowa and University of Chicago won fairly comfortably.
Chicago beat Wisconsin-Whitewater 43-22.
Once again scrumhalf Joe Baldwin was prominent on the scoreline, getting over the tryline twice. No. 8 Jack Allison also bagged a brace, while center Jonas Grusniu added a try and four conversions for 13 points. Fullback Agustin Buteler also scored a try.
For Chicago, which, as we’ve spelled out in our recent article about them, it’s a short runway to the playoffs. They have been playing conference games for only a month. Starting in September 27 they have beaten UIC 40-14, tied Loyola 21-21, beaten Benedictine 45-10, beaten DePaul 52-12, beaten Northwestern 52-21, and now beaten Whitewater 45-22.
Six games over 30 days with a points-per-game average of 42.5. That’s pretty astonishing.
For Loyola, the Ramblers were the only road team to win. They traveled to Milwaukee to take on Marquette and in a tough, chilly, defensive battle the Ramblers won 19-15.
This was considered by some (OK, GRR)
