Notre Dame College will face off with St. Bonaventure this weekend, while Davenport University takes a weekend off before a big fall finale.

But last weekend the two teams faced off, with big goals in mind. Notre Dame is looking to get an invitation to the DIAA playoffs by pursuing, and doing well in, an independent schedule. Davenport is looking to get ready for the DIA Mid-South season in the spring.

NDC in blue, Davenport in red and white. Steven Zomberg photos.

In the end, Davenport won last weekend’s game 38-3, but Notre Dame College Head Coach Jason Fox wasn’t too displeased with the effort.

“This is the first time the guys have really been challenged all season,” said Fox. “Not since playing Wisconsin-Whitewater in the DII playoffs last year. Despite the score I thought we played well defensively, but they had a lot of ball.”

NDC led 3-0 early and in face could have tied the game at 10-10 but a try was called back for a forward pass. That call kind of took some of the wind out of the Falcons’ sails, and Davenport took that reprieve and ran with it.

“Davenport is playing tough competition every week, and are very technically sound,” said Fox. “We learned a lot. I though between the 22s we played pretty well, but the controlled the ball well and finished their chances. We got down 24-3 and our guys weren’t used to it.”

For Davenport, the rebound from losing to Indiana was key.

“Our major downfall in the Indiana game was poor decision-making in open play,” said Coach James Wood. “We were forcing too much in early phases of possession and putting ourselves under constant pressure via unnecessary turnovers.  I thought our defense looked pretty good against IU, but we forced ourselves to play too much of it and ultimately they wore us down.”

Against NDC, then, the Panthers looked to make better decisions with the ball, and to communicate more.

And, said Wood, they needed to identify when that extra pass is just putting the receiver in a worse position.

“Nearly our entire practice last Tuesday was spent walking through various situations and talking through the ‘what-ifs’ of the possible decisions on offer in each scenario,” said Wood.  “It was a pretty slow day from a physicality standpoint, but physicality hasn't been what's hindered us this fall, it's been the mental end of things where we've struggled so we took time to address our shortcomings there.”

The result was a 38-3 win so it had to have worked somewhat.

“We still had some panicked mental hiccups which compounded problems at times, but they were fewer and further between,” said Wood. “We're progressing in the right direction at this point, that's a plus, but we've still got a lot of room for growth and improvement going forward toward a rigorous Mid-South season.”

Meanwhile, NDC plaits St. Bonaventure, a team in the Rugby East which hasn’t seen a lot of victories, but has competed well. Fox said he’d like to see what lessons his players have learned.

“We’ve got a young team that has to learn,” said Fox. “Bonaventure is a tough game, and we have to show we can play week-in, week-out.”