IUP, UNI, Norwich, Towson to D2 Semis
IUP, UNI, Norwich, Towson to D2 Semis
We're down to four teams in Men's D2 college rugby as Sunday saw the NCR D2 quarterfinals.
GRR's #1-ranked IUP won their closest game of the year, edging a tenacious UNC-Wilmington 29-24 to advance to the semifinals in Houston in three weeks.
"They had amazing defensive line speed," said IUP Head Coach Seth Erwin of the Seahawks. "They mucked up a lot of what we wanted to do."
But some big plays from freshman Dylan Deasy and IUPs senior leadership saw them through.
"They kept everyone calm," Erwin said.
Also moving on to the semifinals was Northern Iowa. The GRR #2 UNI team also ran into their closest game. Montana State brought an excellent performance and put UNI on their heels. The Bobcats led 31-10 at halftime, but UNI stormed back to tie the game 36-36 at full time.
On to overtime and UNI scored to win it 41-36. This was a huge test for Northern Iowa given that they had ben winning most of their games by massive margins. Really tested for the first time all season they managed to power through.
Powering through has been what #8-ranked Towson has done for the last few weeks.
Since losing to Salisbury on October 12, Towson has beaten Scranton, Salisbury, Villanova, Loyola, and now Grand Valley State to make the national semis. Not bad for a team that was the #8 seed in their conference playoffs.
"We knew coming into the season that we had the talent to make a big move this year," said Towson's Sean Cornell. "The early part of the year we spent finding our identity as a team, and at this point we're starting to really see things coming together. We're excited to go to Houston and to finish what we started."
Towson 40 Grand Valley State 22.
And finally, Norwich (GRR #5) got past Georgetown 37-12. The Cadets scored early thanks to tries from Conner Willet and Alex Huffman, and while the Hoyas answered, too many Georgetown penalties eventually led to a penalty try and a 19-5 halftime lead for Norwich.
Discipline hurt Norwich, too, as they were shown a red card early in the second half. Georgetown scored soon thereafter, but Norwich rebounded to finish it off 37-12.
"[It was} old school rugby, fast paced, hard tackling truly hard-nosed rugby, and full team effort led by man of the match, Marius Edwards," Norwich Head Coach Bob Weggler said. "I'm so proud of the boys and what they were able to accomplish today, and thankful for all the support by the athlete's family and alumni."
So the semifinal matchups for Friday, Dec 13 in Houston will be:
Towson vs Northern Iowa
IUP vs Norwich
The final and the 3rd-4th game will be ;played Dec 15.