Unity and a Quick Turnaround as USD Wins CRC
Unity and a Quick Turnaround as USD Wins CRC
University of San Diego will be playing Iowa State in the ACR D1AA final this coming weekend in Denver, but they already have a major championship trophy as they won the CRC D1 Club men's championship in the DC area last weekend.
While we all know the weather was rough at the CRC 7s, the good news for San Diego was the weather has been pretty awful in Southern California so they didn't really have to adjust. Adjusting quickly from 15s to 7s was also something they could handle as almost the entire winter/spring has been about 15s for the Toreros.
A lot of that has to do with the work of Head Coach Charlie Purdon.
"He did a fantastic job preparing for this tournament with a very limited amount of time," said USD Director of Rugby Kevin Eaton. "We won our 15s semifinal on April 15 so essentially we had two weeks of prep. We are also prepping for our 15s final against Iowa State next weekend, so a lot of work got done in a short amount of time."
Purdon got to work, and at the same time he had plenty to work with as the core of the USD team that won the Men's Red bracket at the R7CC in Atlanta last year. The team chemistry and everyone just slid into the roles they had played in 2022.
So the stage was set for the CRC tournament.
"First and foremost I want to go on record that we are incredibly thankful to NCR for pulling things off despite some pretty tough conditions," said Eaton. "They had to reschedule over 80 games from Friday afternoon to Saturday and made it work. We were impressed by the level of skill shown by all the teams in our bracket, with Clemson being particularly strong and giving us all that we could handle in the final. They are a very good program. I think the conditions favored us in the end, despite being brutal most of the weekend. We are fit and play solid defense, only allowing 12 points all tournament across 5 games. The conditions also made kickoffs more difficult to field, which is an area we excel in thanks to the kicking skills of Michael Lewis and aerial ability of Paul Habeeb."
San Diego certainly did defend well. They defeated Maryland 22-5, Boston College 24-0, Bowling Green 28-0, and South Carolina 22-0 to make the final. Clemson, meanwhile, beat Delaware 12-7, UConn 22-7, South Florida 40-0, and UConn again 19-12.
That set up the final. Winning those kickoffs did turn out to be a key, as Eaton said, with Lewis's kickoff won by USD and setting up Daniel Hoovel to open the scoring. They built on that and led 10-0 before Clemson's Billy Williams went over to make it 10-7. Ramos finished it off with a try to make it 15-7.
Hoovel, who has tournament MVP in the R7CC last year, was outstanding again. The sweeper made several try-saving tackles and was tough in contact. Lewis wasn't just a kicker as he was also an excellent distributor. He was also very effective on defense and in the breakdown. Habeeb was the ball-winner in the air and was useful in a variety of roles, making key turnovers, chasing kicks, and making breakaways.
Ramos was the tournament MVP, scoring five tries in five games and being a huge physical presence.
"You don't often find a player of his size and power who can go 14 minutes and still be steamrolling people at the final whistle," said Eaton. "It was fitting that it was his big break that sealed the title for us. This whole group is special."
