CRAA D1AA Sevens Day 2: Bobcats Win
CRAA D1AA Sevens Day 2: Bobcats Win
St. Thomas won the CRAA D1AA 7s championship to cap off a 15s-7s double repeating the feat accomplished by U. San Diego in 2022.
The Bobcats won the tournament on Sunday thanks to some overtime drama in the semis and then put it all together to win 42-12 over Iowa.
Day One
See our report here: Showtime on Day One at CRAA D1AA Sevens
Day Two Semis
In the 9th-place semifinals, Minnesota ran out to a 12-0 lead over Texas State thanks to a try from Anders Vevang and one from Dominic Kreiling and they held on to win 12-5.
Texas got a big performance from former Ireland U18 player Niklas Moelders, in Austin for a year abroad. Powerful in contact and active all over the field Moelders scored two tries to lead the Longhorns to a 15-5 win over Baylor.
In the 5th-place semis, Oregon impressed with good work from Liam Weir at scrumhalf, Taishi Konoike as a flyhalf/center, and Will Sherman pretty much everywhere, the Ducks answered two tries from Wyoming’s Cole Williams to win 33-10.
Nebraska’s injury woes continued as they lost Lucas Fleming after he had opened the game with a try. Fleming was outstanding on Day One and in this game until he was hurt. His absence hurt as Millennia Atlantic played their most wide-open game of the weekend. Halfback Bruno Tavanti was a force of nature, scoring a try and setting up others, including Maximo Le Donne and Gabriel Lamboglia. The Macaws won 33-7.
On to the best game of the weekend. Western Washington came into the semifinal with St. Thomas unfazed by STU’s favorite status. Mathias Adamo opened the scoring but the game became a back-and-forth between Welton Charumbira of St. Thomas and Elijah Ashmann of WWU.
Ashmann surprised STU by coming off the wing and torching the Bobcats through the middle. He scored two and helped set up a try for Liam Herring and the Vikings led 19-7 well into the second half.
But St. Thomas worked their way back, punishing some WWU penalties, and Owen Phillips powered over. Then, with time expiring, STU turned the ball over and Charumbira raced down the sideline.
Now we came to a key aspect of this game. The first try for St. Thomas was scored in the corner, but Charumbira was able to slot the conversion from the touchline. It was a brilliant piece of skill on a windy day, and because of that kick, when Charumbira converted his own try, it was 19-19—the flyhalf misses that tough early kick, WWU wins the game.
Instead, the whistle went for full time and we had overtime.
St. Thomas kicked off, forced a turnover, and on a tap penalty move Tshepang Matubatuba tapped, drew some attention, and fed Charumbira for the try in the corner.
“I have a lot of options, and they’re all good,” Matubatuba said later. “They are 99%, but I went with the option I knew would be 100%.”
Sudden death win for St. Thomas, and heartbreak for a WWU team that had a two-score lead with only a couple of minutes to go.
In the other cup semifinal, Iowa and Iowa State battled in a tight one. Michael Johnson was very good in this game and scored early for Iowa. ISU answered with Braden Miller to make it 7-7. The defenses were ruling here and the players who normally break through—Ian Klein for ISU, Ren Heimer for Iowa—were keyed on.
Late in the game Iowa put Josh Bell as an impact sub, and the first-year player picked up at the base of the ruck, and ran down the weak side to score. Heimer converted and it was 14-7. Iowa State responded with no time left, but did not get the conversion. Iowa 14, Iowa State 12.
Final Games
Texas State and Baylor battled through a close and entertaining match, with Texas State winning 19-14 to take 11th. It was a late try for the Bobcats that did the job. Devon Flynn was huge for Texas State.
Vevang and Owen Voice were strong in the 9th-10th game, as the Minnesota Golden Gophers overcame a 7-0 deficit to lead 17-7. Minnesota defended for a long time in the first half, but broke the deadlock in the second half after a long sequence of offloads and little half-breaks for Carter Roth to break through. Halfback Landon Nebel was instrumental in this. They held on from there to beat Texas 17-12 for 9th. It's worth noting that the Ogphers opened the tournament 0-2 and then won three in a row.
More injuries his Nebraska and while they played hard they didn’t have the players capable of breaking off long runs. So in this 7th-place game Wyoming ended up big winners, 36-0. The Cowboys played some good team rugby and relied on Isaac Ranweiler to bust through defenders on the edge and Miles Porwol and Cole Williams to step opponents in the middle. Porwol scored three tries and Cade Pugh scored two.
In the 5th-6th match, MAU played the one team that had beaten them so far, Oregon. That result was 19-17 on the Saturday, with the Ducks somehow forcing Millennia Atlantic to play a more clustered game. They did it again this time, sending players such as Sherman up quickly on defense to stop MAU from moving the ball wide. MAU responded by using their power runners in the middle of the field, but Oregon was comfortable with that.
Tavanti was outstanding again and his try in the second half put MAU up 19-12. But Oregon has some elusive runners and with Tino Mehaffey making big gains they tied it up 19-19 as time expired.
In overtime, the second OT match of the day, Oregon received the ball, worked patiently through the phases, and finally saw Cormac O’Flaherty cut through for the game-winner. This capped off an excellent weekend for the Ducks, who lost just the one game, 19-14 to Iowa State on Saturday.
The 3rd-4th game started with Ashmann breaking through and just before he touched down he passed to Brady McHugh. This was a nod to McHugh’s long service to the team. Not a starter with the 7s team, he played very little through the weekend, McHugh has been an excellent player for the Vikings for the last six years (getting a COVID extra year). Concussions have prompted the Kirkland, Wash. native to step away from the game after this weekend as he graduates and starts his career.
So this try was a thank-you from the team. McHugh then converted the try, and was subbed off as he received hugs from his teammates.
Ashmann, George Pritchard, Tavao Filivaa, and Sho Sekyia all played well in this game as the Vikings pulled away 26-5.
In the final, Iowa hoped to unleash Heimer, who, along with Ashmann and Charumbira, was one of the try-scoring leaders of the tournament. They did, twice, but before all that happened St. Thomas punished two Iowa penalties. The first time Matubatuba faked a pass to Phillips and was over. The second time, Matubatuba faked a pass to Charumbira, and was over. Charumbira converted both, and didn’t miss all through the game. He added a try while Jobe Knapton, Deondre Hough, and Matt Arteta capped off a 42-12 win.
For St. Thomas, this was the payoff for running additional 7s trainings throughout the season. While they knew they wouldn’t play much 7s, they added weekly 7s sessions after 15s practices through the spring. What this did was give the players comfort in their pattern, their teammates, and their approach.
But the final score aside, this was a very competitive tournament. Players repeatedly said how much they enjoyed the event, and there were 10 out of 30 games decided by a try or less, including two overtime matches. There were only four shutouts.
Final Order of Finish:
Champions: St. Thomas (5-0)
2nd: Iowa (4-1)
3rd: WWU (3-2)
4th: Iowa State (3-2)
5th: Oregon (4-1)
6th: MAU (3-2)
7th: Wyoming (2-3)
8th: Nebraska (2-3)
9th: Minnesota (3-2)
10th: Texas (1-4)
11th: Texas State (1-4)
12th: Baylor (0-5)
All-tournament Team:
Welton Charumbira, St. Thomas (MVP)
Ethan Sherman, Oregon
Owen Phillips, St. Thomas
Ian Klein, Iowa State
Elijah Ashamnn, Western Washington
Bruno Tavanti, MAU
Ren Heimer, Iowa
