Touring Matches Lead D1A Weekend

11.03.2025College Men

GCU vs Colorado. Photo J Dalton Photography.

It was a bit of a weekend of cross-border matches in D1A with seven out-of-conference games on the slate.

Here's a look.

Lopes vs Buffs

Grand Canyon welcomed Colorado to Arizona and took the game 48-7.

GCU has been playing 7s but Head Coach Sean O’Leary has been running them through 7s and 15s training this fall so the turnaround wasn’t any big adjustment.

“We have a young side,” said O’Leary. “Ten of our 23 are freshmen. So it took us a little while to settle into the game but in the second half they found their stride.”

Two freshman were especially solid for the ‘Lopes with Ollie Tomlinson out of Warwick School in England and La’au Maka out of Washington putting their hands up.

Wildcats Host Two

Also traveling to Arizona were Utah Valley and Cal Poly. Both played the University of Arizona, with UVU going down to the Arizona 2nds, and Cal Poly getting a first runout and losing 46-22 to the Wildcats.

“It’s the earliest that we’ve played matches like this,” said Arizona DOR Sean Duffy. “It’s been awesome.”

Working on combinations and continuity in mid-fall is a new thing for Arizona and, added Duffy, “it gives us some early action to test those things.”

C-in-C Trophy Opener

Army traveled to Air Force for the first match of the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. Some talented young players showed well in the 52-7 win for the Black Kngihts.

Tries from John Benson, Luke Lentfer, Nick Trout, Richard Corbett III, Keegan Lynch, Porter Kuebler, Phil Roll, and Mx Welling paced the Black Knights to the win.

"I thought our boys showed up with the right mentality despite a short week and long travel, and also played with strong discipline,” said Army Head Coach Matt Sherman.” Overall, I thought it was a very positive performance from a young group and a step forward on our season's journey.”

Broncos and Rams

Santa Clara traveled to Colorado State and the Rams defeated the Broncos in a high-scoring affair 87-26.

“We really appreciate Paul and Santa Clara for coming out to play us for the start of their preseason,” CSU Head Coach Joe Rusert-Cuddy said of the Broncos and Head Coach Paul Keeler.

“The whole 1st side played incredibly well,” said Rusert-Cuddy. “We had some dazzling tries yesterday from the backs, some great poaches on defense, and I am pretty sure we were between 95% and 98% success rate at both scrum and lineout time.”

The Rams have benefited from the arrival of Englishman Alex Tagg, who is on an exchange and has slotted in nicely at flyhalf. His individual ability as well as his ability to set up his teammates has been a big benefit to the Rams side.

His chip kick for sophomore inside center Maciu Ramaqa was a nice highlight, while Wyatt Erlandson scored twice on excellent individual efforts.

Cross-Divisional Question

Penn State faced off with top NCR team St. Bonaventure, however while Penn State pulled off an impressive victory 45-38, this was a relatively young Bonnies side, with a different lineup than they used again, say, Queens.

Midwest and Rugby East

In conference play, Arkansas State beat Davenport 41-26 with captain and flyhalf Warrick Day kicking well and running the attack smartly.

This was the opening weekend of the Midwest Conference, and Lindenwood also won, shutting out an improving McKendree side 87-0 behind three tires from Zack McCartney and two each from Karsten Rice and freshman Michael Daly.

And finally in Rugby East, Life won impressively 75-14 over Mount St. Mary’s, with Leo Venables scoring two tries in the first 25 minutes of the game. The Running Eagles built from there with Adam Chadwick, Jordan Vassel, Shain Matthysen and Tristan Hubsch all scoring tries before the break.

Bautista Araujo, Kade Cunningham, Aiden Beatty, and Jonty Lee also scored tries in the second half, with Lee garnering 23 points overall.

Life remains 2nd in the Rugby East with a 4-1 record. Mount, now 2-3, is 3rd, but Army is behind them having only played three conference games and the Black Knights sit at 2-1.