(Joseph Mehling photo)
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The newly established Ivy League determined its two seeds with the top four teams meeting in two semifinals.
The Big Green were led by Honorable Mention All-American Paul Jarvis ’12, who had four of the Dartmouth tries on the day.
"Winning the inaugural Ivy League title is an immense accomplishment and the entire team is overjoyed. Despite adverse weather conditions, the team remained focused and played smart, physical rugby,” said Jarvis.
“We played better than [we did in our 62‐8 loss to Dartmouth],” added Yale coach Jan Pikul. “Dartmouth had to make plays to score tries this time around, whereas last time we gave [Dartmouth] a lot of gifts.”
With the win over Yale, the Big Green remain undefeated this season and earn the second overall seed in the Northeastern Territorial playoffs. This was Dartmouth’s tenth Ivy League Championship in thirteen years.
Dartmouth will host the first round, quarterfinal match in two weeks.
Kutztown bounced back from last week’s loss to Navy by edging Rutgers 19-17 in the Mid-Atlantic Premier League.
KU led 12-7 at the half before Rutgers tied things up at 12-12 early in the second frame and then fell behind 17-12 midway through the second frame when flanker Mike McCorry touched down for Rutgers.
However, Kutztown’s backline worked an overload out wide with a little more than 10 minutes remaining to score what was the game-winning try.
Rutgers’ other try-scorers were Jon Mercer and Jim Roblin, while Marco Barnard, Jason Zink and Gordon Ralph found the promised land for Kutztown.
“The Rutgers' pack is a force to be reckoned with, especially on a field drenched with forty eight hours of non-stop rain,” Kutztown head coach Doc Jones told ARN. “However, our pack has become accustomed to wet play this season and prepared well for the Rutgers attack.”
Elsewhere, Penn State dropped Virginia 36-5.
In the New England Conference, a red hot Army completely dominated UConn winning 100-0. This came hot on the heels of the Black Knights’ 93-3 belting of Northeastern a week earlier.
And as expected LSU and Tennessee dominated their respective opposition at the SEC tournament in Birmingham, AL.
Tennessee's path to the final saw them defeat Alabama 71-0 and then Georgia 34-0. LSU's path saw them have a bye in the first match and then defeat a very game South Carolina side 31-7.
Other first round winners were South Carolina moving to the semis defeating Ole Miss 26-0 and Georgia 19-5 to reach the semis to play LSU.
Sunday’s three finals are Ole Miss v South Carolina in the consolation final, LSU B v Tennessee B in the B side final and then the match of the day LSU v Tennessee.
And in the New York State Conference, St Bonaventure kept their winning run going by knocking off Cortland 49-20, Brockport topped Albany 34-21 and Syracuse beat Binghamton 39-12.
