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Indiana Comes Back to Beat Davenport

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Indiana Comes Back to Beat Davenport

Indiana applied a lot of pressure. Steven Zomberg photo.

Indiana University got tries from Teddy Terezis and Alex Dorrier, and a conversion and two penalty goals from Terezis to help Indiana come back from a 14-3 deficit to beat #7 Davenport 18-17.

Indiana in the darker red; Davenport in white, black and red. Steven Zomberg photos. Click on images to enlarge.

Indiana v Davenport Zomberg
Indiana v Davenport Zomberg
Indiana v Davenport Zomberg

The #10 Hoosiers have won most of their games this year by big score lines, so having trouble scoring and being tested defensively was a new experience for them.

“What caught us off guard early on is we haven’t had to play too much defense,” said Indiana’s Bryce Campbell. “They got us bunched up on one side and around the rucks and found some space and scored on us. After that, we got our eyes up and focused on defense. That was a great help to us.”

Campbell credited the Indiana forwards with taking control of the defensive line. 

“Our whole forward pack really stepped up and started taking away the space a lot better,” said Campbell. Out wide, center Matt Duncan was a defensive force.

Still, the Panthers ran in a second try in the first half and led 14-3.  

Offensively, IU was patient and “stuck to our system,” said Campbell. They also opted for points on penalties when they were on offer.

“We knew if we kept ball in hand it would happen eventually,” said Campbell. “We were confident we would score. But we also talked about how while we love to score tries, sometimes we need to take penalty kicks. We knew that if Teddy was confident, we should take them, and that was the different.”

Terezis scored and converted his own try to make it 14-10 in the second half. Davenport added a penalty kick to extend their lead to 17-10, and then Terezis added a penalty to bring IU closer at 17-13.  

That set it up for the final ten minutes, when Dorrier snaked in to touch down.

“This was a big won for us,” said Campbell. “For sure.”