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10.26.2021College Men
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syracuse lineout vs nazareth

The final standings are set for the Liberty Conference and four teams are left for the playoffs.

Three teams ended up 1st in their division, and all were undefeated: Syracuse, Iona, and Northeastern.

Syracuse beat Nazareth 22-10 to cap off a very impressive run. Nazareth ran out to a14-0 lead with two tries in the first ten minutes, both with long runs. After that Syracuse settled down. Center Liam Kirkpatrick made a line break and offloaded to captain Nick Merriam. Flanker Angus Dorward scored his first A-side try off a maul, and suddenly it was 14-12. Nazareth slotted a penalty goal, flyhalf Brady Thompson set up Joe Hamm for a line break and Hamm sidestepped the cover defense to go in.

Unfortunately, right before halftime, Thompson incurred a shoulder injury and had to lead the game. Despite that, Syracuse built on their 19-17 lead. Forwards Jimmy Clements, Ryan McKiernan, and John Frega all kept Syracuse going forward , and hooker Liam Hannah, lock Ryan McKiernan, and Hamm (twice more) all scored runs during a 28-0 run. That made it 47-17, and while Nazareth scored two later, it was Syracuse's day.

"Ball handling on offense and line speed on both sides of the ball were huge for us," said Merriam. "We think we played our best rugby in this game, and we know we need it for 160 minutes straight if we want to win Liberty."

Buffalo won 59-0 over Brokport to improve to 4-2, as did Binghamton, 33-22 over Cortland. AIC improved to 3-2 with two wins over the weekend, but they were already behind a big immovable rock because they'd lost to Iona and Fordham. Bryce Stovell and Andrew Marshall scored tries in both games as AIC won 53-3 and 57-0 over Stony Brook and Colgate.

Iona blasted Albany 91-0 to finish undefeated, and Northeastern won by 91 as well, beating UConn 98-7 to finish unbeaten. So those three made the semis and there is one wild card spot, which went to Fordham, whose only conference loss was 36-16 to Iona. that put them at 4-1, and while Fairfield was 5-1, there is a process for that. The conference tiebreaker process for the Wild Card by measuring standings points per game, thus addressing the fact that Liberty New England teams play six games and Liberty MetNY teams play only five. Fordham averaged 4.0 standings points per game, and so did Fairfield. So then it went to point differential per match, and Fordham's 34.6 was higher than Fairfield's 20.5. So Fordham gets the fourth semifinal spot.

So Fordham is at Northeastern, and Syracuse is at Iona.

Other teams in the conference will get bowl matchups.  

Liberty EmpireWLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Syracuse600260951654028
U of Buffalo42018189923221
Binghamton420178157215021
Nazareth420163147164121
Cortland140107169-62307
Oswego St15073140-67116
Brockport05060225-165213
          
Liberty MetNYWLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Iona500218751435025
Fordham410234611734020
AIC320201561454117
Stony Brook13072207-135206
Colgate13029129-100116
U Albany04010236-226000
          
Liberty-New EnglandWLTPFPAPDBTBLPts
Northeastern600332662665029
Fairfield510198751234024
Boston College42018599864020
UCONN330103205-1021013
UMASS15062170-108116
URI15079173-94015
Tufts14048181-133004

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