Blowouts and Rankings Challenges in D2
Blowouts and Rankings Challenges in D2
GRR's D2 rankings have only had the opening week, so it's expected that they will change, but before the rankings come out here's a look at how the ranked teams did over this past weekend.
The over 50 teams in action (albeit some were D3 teams in mixed conferences) saw 12 out of the 21 relevant games we have results for had winning margins of 39 or more. So there is clearly a difference between levels.
And, also, interestingly, some of the teams that lost those games are ranked and expected to do well in their conference.
Close Games
We talked a little bit in GRR about how the Northern Lights is back and more robust this year, and the first week's results show that. Northern Lights is a combined league (D2 and D3 teams in the same schedule). St. Thomas (D3) edged D2 Minnesota-Duluth 14-13. North Dakota State got by Winona State 22-10, and MSU Mankato beat D3 St. John's 38-28. All three of those games are in the Northern Lights.
UMBC edged Bucknell 22-19 in MARC. Kent State beat Robert Morris 38-22, and Vermont beat Norwich 44-26.
That UVM vs Norwich game was probably the highest-profile close game of the weekend, with #7 vs #8.
But, interestingly, that was about it for close games (keep in mind we're still trying to confirm one or two scores).
Big Winning Margins
Of the 22 games for which we currently have scores, we'll take one result out because it's D2 Northern Iowa against D1AA Iowa State. That's not particularly representative of what we're talking about.
So now out of 21 games, two were within a try, four more were within 18 points. The next-closest game was a 22-point win, but it was a shutout, which at least comes across as not close. Three games were a margin of 22 to 28. The rest, 12 games, were 39 more (largest winning margin 110, lowest 39 which is why we picked that number as our lowest boundary).
Of those 12 games, two involved were really D3 games. Only one of the rest involved no ranked teams (and it's likely we'll see the winner, University of New Hampshire, ranked this week). The other nine games featured at least one ranked team, and the higher-ranked team won all but one game. Three of the games had a ranked team losing (but to a higher-ranked team), and five had games with unranked teams losing the game.
The higher-ranked loss was Albany (#33) losing to #34 RPI.
So you have in those nine games, the winning teams scored an average of 68 points, and the lower-ranked teams scored an average of five points. So what that tells us is there is an upper echelon.
Games of Note
Grand Valley State beat Loyola in very impressive fashion in a clash of #12 vs #19. Flyhalf Reinhardt Stipp led the attack well and back rowers Aidan Reilly and Alex Jones working hard in support, they finished off movements. Reilly and Jones got just reward for their work rate, both scoring two tries.
St. Louis University beat Washington University 67-10 in a meeting of GRR's #25 over #36. That was a massive showing for SLU. They were fast, dynamic, and played quickly.
Head Coach Andrew Wenger was careful in celebrating the result.
"We had a great game," he said, "but we will have a lot of work in front of us. I was worried at the end of last season, as we graduated 17 guys from the program. This year we only have four seniors and four juniors. Luckily, the last two years have brought in several experienced freshmen and the program has stayed strong. We still have some work to do with organization on the field but being that we are only three weeks in we will continue to work on it."
Guys that showed up big for us on Fri were Sean Volcy at wing, Adam Grauerholz at 10, Pau Thang at hooker. They all had big plays and kept the ball moving. I hate to leave out the rest of the team because they all put in hard work out there for 80 mins. Let me know if you need any more. I can get you stats tonight.
Mankato's win over a very good St. John's was a key one. In the Northern Lights the D3 and D2 teams play each other but it's the intra-divisional games that ultimately count in the respective standings. So this was more about a benchmark.
"We saw a tough SJU side," said Mankato Head Coach Nick Mans. "I expect them to go far. As a former Johnnie myself, I have high expectations of them. We have some concepts to iron out on our end, but our skills and talent are increasing every week. New guys are picking the game up well and veteran players in new spots are making the transition easier for everyone. We graduated a lot of talent last year, but our guys are ready to take over and raise the bar."
Paxton Pagel was very strong on both sides of the ball and captain Kadin Larsson was also excellent. Blake Martin was an offensive threat and kicked well.
"We have emerging talent all over the field and in the sub roster," added Mans.
The biggest blowout was probably Georgetown 87-0 over Bloosmburg, not because it was the widest winning margin (it wasn't) but because it was ranked team (#3) over another ranked team (#37).
Marist showed very well in a victory over Stony Brook.
No. 8 TJ Finegan continued his run of form with a three-try game, while scrumhalf Connor Finn and wing Drew Casavant scored two each. Both Finn and Casavant logged three conversions each to log 16 points apiece.
Center Dylan Kluge, prop Nate Desany, and lock Tim Steer also scored tries for the Foxes. This is a strong start for Marist.
And Vermont (#7) beat Norwich (#8). UVM rocketed out of the blocks in this game, and took a 22-point lead into halftime. Norwich responded well, but the hill was too steep to climb.
"I'd say that the largest contribution to our win was the synergy and teamwork from the team and understanding that while we all have different skillsets, we all still play an equally important role," said UVM's Roman Legere. "We had a lot of great plays made by almost everyone on the pitch. We're all raising our expectations together. No one has to pick up for another player's lack of effort."