A day after they won an overtime semifinal, SUNY Oswego upset #17 SUNY Cortland to win the Upstate NY Conference.

Cortland was pegged by Goff Rugby Report as a prohibitive favorite going into the semis, and it seemed on Saturday that such an assessment would pan our - Cortland beat Geneseo 31-5 despite resting several starters. Meanwhile, Oswego had all sorts of trouble with Niagara, going to overtime with their 1st team before winning 37-27.

Oswego players celebrate the win. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The expectation, then, would be that a rested and undefeated Cortland would defeated a tired Oswego squad.

That’s why they play the game.

“We overlooked Niagara a bit,” said Oswego club president Reid Adler. “We were so focused on Cortland. So we came out flat, and we made some mistakes.”

Oswego led 10-0 in the first half against Niagara before the Purple Eagles scored four tries to lead 20-10 (in a very windy Henrietta, NY, kicks were not easy to make). In the second half, Oswego scored three tries, converting one, and Niagara scored one, getting the conversion, for a 27-27 tie at full time.

So on to overtime, where Edgar Perez and Jacob Speno, the team’s co-captains in the forwards, scored tries to win that game.

On Sunday, the game was nowhere near as high-scoring. While Oswego had lost to Cortland 17-12 on October 11, the Lakers had suffered several injuries, key of those being flyhalf Kevin Morgan out with a broken wrist. Now healthy, Oswego felt they could overcome the Red Dragons.

Mike McDermott went over for Oswego’s first try, with Speno adding a penalty for an 8-5 lead at halftime.

“We were prepared for what they were bringing,” said Adler, who, along with Sam Baker, plays scrumhalf for Oswego. “We knew they were a really physical team, so we practice really freakin’ hard. We fired right out and played almost the entire game in their 40. They seemed to not want to come at us, and waited for us to come to them.”

Oswego also dominated the scrums, winning all of their own put-ins and many of Cortland’s.

But still, the second half would have been, you’d expect, Cortland’s time. They were rested, while Oswego had played their starters through 100 minutes the day before.

But it was Oswego that finished stronger, bottling up Cortland in their own half and getting tries from Morgan and Russell Schneider to win 18-5.

In the 100 minutes after halftime over the weekend, Oswego had outscored their opponents 37-7.

Why? because, said Adler, “we put in the work. Our coach [Jim Clark] runs us to no end. We were just ready.”

Oswego now faces NECRC champion Rhode Island in the Round of 16 next week.