In a thriller of a Men’s DII College play-in game, MARC runners up Rowan University came back from 31-0 down to win their plain clash with Tri-State winners Fairfield 43-38 Saturday.

Rowan gets to play James Madison in the national Round of 16 next week. Fairfield, which had won the Tri-State going away, stormed out to a big lead, spinning the ball wide and testing the Rowan defense on the perimeter.

But late in the first half, Rowan cottoned to the right game plan, and started to keep the ball tight within their forwards. They scored two tries before halftime, and then scored three in quick succession to get back in the game.

“We got some really good kicking from our flyhalf, Mike Ehrlich,” said Rowan club president John Edler. “That pinned them back and meant they had to work for territory. And as the same time we realized that our forwards were stronger, especially in the scrum.”

And the scrum began to create tries. Three times the Rowan pack drove the scrum over the line. Three times No. 8 Eddie Williams just had to fall on it.

“We did it against York last week and we knew we could do it again,” said Williams. “I just had to touch it down. Our forwards as a whole did a great job. We kept possession better in the second half, and after we cored that third trie we knew we could come back.”

Rowan Coach Curt Gruber told his team to go one at a time and Rowan certainly didn’t try to rush it.

“We kept possession, won our scrums, won our lineouts, and we pined them back with our kicking,” added prop and co-captain James Carr. “You know teams say ’we’re still in it’ when they’re down something like 31-0, but you don’t know if they really feel it. Well we felt it, and we did it. It wasna amazing feeling. Guys had tears in their eyes.”