The first day of Pool Play is done in the Men’s DI College 7s Championships in Cary, NC, and the favorites, for the most part, looked the part.

Goff Rugby Report pool picks Central Washington, Saint Mary’s, Lindenwood, AIC, and Notre Dame College all started strong

In Pool A, Central Washington’s Jake Spiller scored three tries in a 29-0 opener over the Kennesaw State Owls, and followed that up with a 19-7 win over South Carolina that was a lot more work - USC had it at 14-7 with five minutes left. 

Also 2-0 in Pool A is New England College, paced by two tries by Ky Young over USC (who lost two close ones on Friday), and a nice 26-7 victory over KSU with tries from Young, Justin Muniz, William Darbouze, and Ryan Gurrola.

Lindenwood got two tries from Mickey Bateman in a 24-0 opener against Fordham, and then it was all hands on deck to edge St. Bonaventure 12-10. Bonnies, touted somewhat by GRR, lost two close ones on Friday, the first being a 14-10 decision to Cal Poly where the Mustangs scored in the final seconds. Cal Poly went on to beat Fordham to match Lindenwood at 2-0.

Saint Mary’s looked dominant, with Scholz Award Winner Dylan Audsley showing why he got the award, scoring tries and setting them up in  36-5 win over West Virginia (Audsley scored the team’s first 24 points in that one), and a 50-0 demolition of Alabama. Holden Yungert, who missed the spring 15s playoffs with injury, was inspired.

AIC had a tough opener against Bowling Green, and the score was 15-12 at halftime. But two tries from Jihad Khabir put AIC ahead 17-12 and they cruised 41-12. Against Oklahoma, AIC seemed to have some trouble with penalties, but managed to channel their frustration to beat the Sooners 22-7 behind two excellent tries from Gavan D’Amore-Morrison. Bowling Green rebounded to beat San Diego State nicely, and will look to take down Oklahoma Saturday for 2nd in the pool.

And in Pool F, Notre Dame College set Liam Tipton-Fletcher and Marcus Tupuola free and they took down North Texas 29-0, while Arizona State got a big game from Alex Walsh and Alex Sandstrom in beating Wyoming 35-7. Both NDC and ASU won their second games to go 2-0. 

Pool E was the toughest pool to call, but in the end it wasn’t so tough, at all, as Davenport shut out James Madison (not easy to do) and shut out Iowa, as well. Dominique Bailey and Brady Gent were prominent on the scoreboard, but it was a team effort. Texas A&M won big over Iowa and against JMU scored tries through Ross Navarro and Philip Hanson, and then held on 14-12 after two Erik Carlson tries made it close for Madison.

 

So this is how things look:

Pool A

CWU 2-0

NEC 2-0

USC 0-2

KSU 0-2

 

Pool B

Lindenwood 2-0

Cal Poly 2-0

SBU 0-2

Fordham 0-2

 

Pool C

Saint Mary’s 2-0

Arkansas 1-1

WVU 1-1

Alabama 0-2

 

Pool D

AIC 2-0

Bowling Green 1-1

SD State 0-1-1

Oklahoma 0-1-1

 

Pool E

Davenport 2-0

Texas A&M 2-0

JMU 0-2

Iowa 0-2

 

Pool F

NDC 2-0

Arizona State 2-0

Wyoming 0-2

North Texas 0-2

 

Two of the 2nd-place teams will make the quarterfinals, and it’s likely that the loser between Arizona State and Notre Dame College will be one of those. There’s a battle between A&M, Cal Poly, and New England College for that other spot (assuming that the favorites win those pools).