GRR: Marist
We are enjoying seeing a few upstart Men's D2 College teams this season which is gratifying to us at Goff Rugby Report World Headquarters because it gives us something to talk about on the daily 90-minute bullet train ride from home to HQ.
Shaking up expectations is good for the competition as a whole.
Marist defeated Hofstra to win the Tri State Conference Men's 7s Championship Sunday, making it a 15s-7s conference double for Marist.
Hofstra made the final with a 31-0 defeat of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the semifinals, while Marist held off Fairfield 30-19 to make the championship game. The Fairfield team entered into this tournament was their development side.
There were four play-in games scheduled for the NCR men's D2 playoffs, and here's how they all ended up.
Virginia's game with Bucknell wasn't played as Bucknell suffered too many injuries from the previous week's MARC playoffs and couldn't field a team. So Virginia advanced.
Marist won the men's D2 Tri-State Conference championship, beating RPI 47-10 Sunday to book at spot in the NCR national playoffs.
Federico Gubana was a scoring machine for Marist, logging an astounding 32 points from two tries, five conversions, and four penalty goals. Wing Shemar Phillip added two tries and outside center Albert Severini added a try as well.
The Tri-State Conference helds its semifinals Sunday, with one or two surprises.
WomenIn New Jersey on Sunday the Fairfield University Women came from behind to tie the game and then in the second period of overtime scored to finish up 29-24. Fairfield will face the Vassar College Women on Saturday in the final. RPI and MSU will match-up for third and fourth place.