Plenty of drama and excitement in the Men's DII Round of 16 as there were a couple of surprises, and some comebacks along the way.

Norwich and Furman.

Top-ranked Norwich and #2 Furman both won. Details here:

Two Top-Ranked DII Teams Win In Playoffs

Illinois State looked fairly solid in defeating Minnesota State-Moorhead 31-7 to advance. 

Missouri S&T controlled things against Rocky Mountain Conference winners Montana State and rolled out 34-3 winners. Most of the first half was played in the S&T half, but they were able to break out and score just before halftime.

"After that try we were pretty pumped," said S&T prop Austin McMillen. "After that we just played our game, played a good forward game, played in their half, and kept going."

The S&T forward pack was in control in what McMillen called "just a good team effort." And key also was that S&T was able to sub out players and rest them for Sunday.

All College Playoff Scores

UMass-Lowell ran out to a 17-0 lead over Central Michigan with tries from Brandon Bishop, a conversion and a penalty goal from Nathaniel Taylor, and then a try from David Sellman. But CMU, which entered the playoffs at late notice to replace injury-depleted rand Valley State, bounced back. 

CU scored two tries in the final ten minutes (Tyler Glave and Zachary Warlick), but Taylor added a penalty goal to keep a cushion, and Lowell held on 20-12.

Queens hammered Lehigh 82-10. Devon McCarthy scored three tries for the Royals while Dominic Tianga, Jake Morris, and Austin Burton all scored two. Jack Williams slotted eight conversions in an emphatic victory.

Memphis defeated Villanova 24-13 in what was something of an upset. But that was more because Memphis hasn't really played much in top-level DII rugby.  

And Wisconsin-Whitewater had to come back to defeat Vermont 19-17 in a rain-soaked wild one. Vermont led 10-0 before the Warhawks replied with two tries, one of which was converted, to lead 12-10.

Back came Vermont to take the 17-12 lead. But it wasn't enough. Levi Van Lanen burst onto a short ball and weaved his way to paydirt. That made it 19-17. Vermont had a penalty attempt that in drier weather might have been converted, but on wet ground with the ball soggy and cold, it wasn't to be, and Whitewater held on.

So Sunday's quarterfinals are as follows:

Norwich vs Furman

UMass-Lowell vs Queens University Charlotte

Memphis vs Wisconsin-Whitewater

UMS&T vs Illinois State