Where are we in Division 2 after this past weekend's action—for the most part, where we expected, but not everywhere.

Men's D2 College Scores Here>>

Allegheny / Great Lakes: IUP won by a huge margin to win their conference, which is no surprise, and Grand Valley State are on top in the Great Lakes after winning again. IUP and GVSU will both make the D2 playoffs but will play each other to see who seeds where.

Gateway: St. Louis University defeated one of their chief rivals, UMS&T, 29-14, to take the #1 seed into the conference playoffs. SLU ran out to a 15-0 lead at halftime, scoring three tries but struggling with the conversions thanks to a very brisk wind knocking the ball down. Julio Pedro had a big game at prop with, running hard and handling the scrums. Flyhalf Adam Grauerholz was elusive, cutting back to run in tries. S&T responded well in the second half and punished SLU penalties scored twice and made it 15-14. 

But SLU settled down to score twice and make it 29-14. That finishes off SLU's regular season with a 6-0-1 record (their tie was against Missouri). Now the conference playoffs begin, with SIU having won big and moving to 5-1,but it still looks like SLU is the favorite.

Cardinals / MARC: Top Cardinals D2 team Virginia were entered into the MARC playoffs, and they didn't advance. We have a bit more on how that first round of the knockouts shook out here: Surprises in MARC D2 Playoffs. Included in this is a bit of GRR-prognostication-shaming. 

Great Midwest: A surprise in the GMW quarterfinals, too. More on that here: Great Midwest Latest as We're Down to 4 in D2

High Peaks: Montana State had to work for it a bit against Colorado Mesa, but tries from center Kincaid Calkin, captain and flanker Finn Russell, and wing Rhett Quinn, along with three conversions plus a penalty goal from Daniel O'Connor clinched the conference for the Bobcats.

Liberty: Marist edged RPI in a clash of the top two teams in the conference. All that did was decide the #1 seed and the #2 seed. RPI will take on RIT, while Marist is set to face Stony Brook.

It was a good showing from RPI but Marist did well enough.

"[It was] pretty well what we expected," said Marist Head Coach Nic Clapinson, who became the team's new coach this fall. "They are tough to play against very good defensively so breaking them down was far tougher than any other opponent so far. Really happy with how the team has developed this Fall, we had several returning starters not end up coming back unexpectedly, new coaching staff and a new approach emphasizing ball movement and continuity."

Clapinson added that Marist would like to see a bigger impact from their reserve forwards. Putting the reserves on the field en masse ended up shaking up the unity a bit.

Lock Tim Steer was huge for Marist, working hard all day, while flyhalf and co-captain Ryker Wierdsma and it was his penalty goal at the end of the game that won it. Clapinson had praise for his deep three players which included Drew Casavant, Thomas McMahon, and Nick Cimaglia, with Gino Carusome and Nathan Smith coming of the bench.

"We certainly have to improve on defensive side of things heading into the playoffs and we are expecting a very different Stony Brook to the version we played in the opening game of the season," added the Marist coach.

Northern Lights: MSU Mankato remains atop the league after a 46-19 win over UM-Duluth.

NACR: We made a mistake in our video (aside from saying certain teams would advance who didn't), and said NACR doesn't have a playoff. They do. Vermont won 60-7 over Coast Guard over the weekend.

"Just a lot of good players clicking together to create some good phases," said club president Roman Legere.

UVM is 1st at 6-0 while Norwich moves to 5-1 after a 53-3 win over UMass Lowell. New Hampshire had a bye over the weekend and they finish the regular season at 4-2, while UML is now 3-3. Norwich is slated to face Vermont in the final on November 3. UNH will play Lowell to decide the third seed from the NACR to the NCR national playoffs.

Southern: UNC-Wilmington defeated Coastal Carolina 45-26 in a meeting of the top two teams in the conference. 

It eas a very physical game. Coastal scored in the first 30 seconds of the game with an interception to lead 7-0. UNCW answered right back with a try out wide, and they would add another unconverted try and two penalty goals to take a 16-7 lead at the break.

After halftime UNCW built on that momentum with three tries to establish a 33-7 advantage. Coastal kept battling, scored a try, but Wilmington answered. Coast scored twice late but it wasn't enough.

Hooker Brandon Cash scored two tries for UNC-Wilmington while Zay Arrington, Carey Cortes, Jerri Lombard, Michael Shrewsbury, and Michael Barney all touched down. One more game left for UNC-W but they should wrap up the #1 spot (no playoffs in the Southern) and Coastal Carolina should wrap up #2.