(Andy Fellouris photo)

The opening round of the Northeastern Rugby Union college playoffs is now in the books with winners fairly evenly split across the competing conferences.

Army, Dartmouth, Syracuse and Fordham all won through to next week’s championship rounds.

Army demolished Brockport 75-5 after leading 38-0 at halftime.

“They’re a damn good team from #15 through #1,” Brockport head coach Mike Hodgins told ARN. “They scored in the first two minutes and we were never in it.”

Dartmouth handled Boston College 50-8 in another quarterfinal, while Syracuse beat Harvard 36-19 and Fordham edged St Bonaventure 17-12 in the other quarter.

On the last play of the game, Fordham's TJ Carrol scored a 30-meter try to ice it.

NRU men’s D2 playoffs:
(1) UMASS def Southern Connecticut State 27-0
(2) Middlebury def Hamilton 51-5
(3) Stony Brook def Boston University 31-29
(5) U. Vermont over (4) Buffalo State 46-21

Meantime, in the only fixture in the Mid-Atlantic Premier League Saturday, Penn State improved its position with a 48-20 victory over Rutgers in Piscataway, NJ.

The Nittany Lions scored three quick tries to take an early 21-3 lead and were rarely threatened from that point onwards. They led 36-3 at the break.

PSU was quicker to the breakdowns and showed more speed in the backs, something the Black Death wasn’t able to match. Flanker Kevin Kimble (3) had a big day, as did Joe Baker, who scored a try and booted five conversions and a penalty goal.

Jim Roblin was among Rutgers' best with two tries.

“We more or less just got caught off guard,” said Rutgers head coach Ken Halligan. “It seems that every week we let teams get ahead of us early and even though we score, we can’t make up the difference.”

South Carolina wrapped up its fall season by beating Appalachian State 24-8 in Columbia.

Tries to #8 Anthony Hughes, flanker Josh Scaggs, wing Colin McKeon and fullback Tom Plumley, with two conversions by Plumley.

“We ramped it up in the second half after a lethargic first half,” said South Carolina head coach Geoff Mason. "Strong talking to at halftime from the coaches and we started to string some phases together.”

And in an exhibition game in Charlotte, Life University outplayed the North Carolina All-Stars to post a 55-7 win.

It was the first game for Life’s collegiate side under the tutelage of new coach Dan Payne and his charges converted on just about every opportunity they had.

“They’re a good team and it was a real step up in class for my boys,” North Carolina All-Star head coach Andy Richards told ARN.

“They [Life] have some real quality players who played the game at pace.”

The North Carolina side used the game as a final warm-up for next week’s South collegiate All-Star championship in Knoxville, TN.