IUP Battles on to Win CRC DII | Goff Rugby Report

05.30.2022

Shaking off the controversy of yesterday, IUP won two very tight games to take National Collegiate Rugby's Men's DII National 7s Championship Monday in New Orleans.

IUP made the semifinal after a weird game in the quarterfinals where they won at full time 21-19, but overtime was played (and won by UNC Wilmington) before the accurate score was confirmed. It was a tough out for Wilmington but IUP moved on and made the most of it.

Lander enjoyed an excellent CRC

With a strong group of quick players such as RJ Beach, Hunter Bizjak, Brian Arnold, and Barry Ashway, but they had more than that. They were able to play a high-scoring semifinal and win over an excellent Northern Iowa team 29-26. And in the final they won a defensive battle.

And the center of attention for IUP was 6-7 forward Colton Moyer.

With a slow, defensive DII final against Lander seeing the Southern Conference team leading 7-0. But IUP replied with a patient attack, and in the second half Moyer just rambled and bulled his way through tacklers to score under the posts.

Up 12-7, they needed to consolidate that lead, and they did, winning the restart, securing possession, and scoring as time expired to win it 17-7.

It was an impressive showing against a Lander team that put together an impressive run.

In this, perhaps NCR's best CRC bracket, the top teams were all very good and the competition throughout was very strong. Twelve games were decided by a try or less and several others, including the final, were within a try until the final moments.

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