Miami of Ohio came from almost out of the blue to win the MAC 7s this past weekend, and they admit it was a bit of a surprise.

“We didn’t play well last weekend,” said Miami Coach Jared Moore.

But somehow they came out of the MAC 7s winners, beating Bowling Green 27-24 in the final. It wasn’t a complete disaster for BGSU, as they had already qualified for the USA Rugby national 7s championships. Still, the victory for Miami was a big one.

“We just made fewer mistakes than the other teams,” said Moore. “It took us a while in pool play to really get going. We didn’t look good last week [at the Notre Dame College 7s}, not too many MAC teams did. But this time we stayed together as a team. We’ve always had heart, we’ve always worked hard, but we needed to execute.”

And that was the lesson for the Miami players. Sure racing the length of the field to make a try-saving tackle shows heart and dedication, but not dropping the ball so you have to make that tackle is even better.

Miami was helped by some standout plays. Scrumhalf Ben Fishbach played every minute of every game and was good at the start and the end. James Stagnaro and Andrew Norris put in a full day’s work, while Zack Cox was an influential impact sub off the bench. Cox, in fact, was the one who scored through traffic to win the final over Bowling Green.

Now Miami has some work to do to raise funds to get to nationals in Denver. But maybe for a day or two they can also wallow in the glory. Counted out, they counted themselves back in.