Three Conference Deciders In D1AA Weekend

Three Conference Deciders In D1AA Weekend

A look at this weekend's D1AA games.

Sep 22, 2017 by Alex Goff
Three Conference Deciders In D1AA Weekend
Several contenders are looking to make an early statement in their conference title races this week in D1AA rugby.

If they win, it could send a message that they're the ones to beat. 

SCRC West Showdown

First off, in the SCRC, Alabama hosts South Carolina on Saturday. This is likely to be the decider for the SCRC West, and it's very, very early days for a Gamecocks team that has some fresh new talent coming along, with much of its being power up front.


But Alabama has started strong with a 39-17 victory over Florida last weekend. It's been a tumultuous early season for the Crimson Tide, with coach Eddie Buckner needing to take some personal time. Recent grad Ross Depperschmidt -- still on campus pursuing his master's -- and his brother Danny -- also working on his postgrad studies -- are helping coach the team.

"We are very proud of the effort that our guys put forth," Ross Depperschmidt said about last week's game.

With weather forcing both the Gators and the Tide to miss practice time, the rugby was not precise. "But," Depperschmidt added, "we started clicking as the game progressed."

Alabama has the likes of No. 8 Bobby Morgan and lock forward Bobby Collins powering through the line. USC will need to stop those guys, because if the interior Gamecocks defense requires help, then players like wing Caleb Strum or freshman sensation Harrison Dulgarian can hurt them on the outside.

"We know we need a lot of improvement to reach our end-the-season goals," Depperschmidt said. "We have a great opportunity with South Carolina visiting us, as they are always a well-coached and experienced team."


Ivy League Game Of The Season Part 2

The Ivy League's attention turned to Harvard vs. Brown last week. That matchup was expected to be a game that decided who challenges Dartmouth for the league title (it was), and it was expected to be close (it wasn't).

OK, it was close for a while, but Harvard scored two quick tries around the 20-minute mark and then ran away with it late for a 53-15 win. It wasn't a pretty game, and it was more mistake-riddled than either team would have liked to have played. Still, Harvard coach Mike Diamantopoulos was happy enough.

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On Saturday, the Crimson move on to challenge Dartmouth on the road. Harvard knows how to do it -- defend the way it can and get the ball back so it doesn't have to defend for 80 percent of the time.

A week ago, the Big Green hammered Cornell as you'd expect. Dartmouth still strikes quickly on the outside. 

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"The game against Dartmouth will give us an indication of how far our program has come over the last year," Diamantopoulos said. "Dartmouth is still the class of the league and the benchmark we measure ourselves against."

The winner of the Harvard vs. Dartmouth game should have the inside track on winning the conference. It's probably still going to be the Big Green.

Chesapeake Undefeateds

In the Chesapeake, Virginia hosts undefeated Mary Washington, while another 2-0 team, Virginia Tech, travels to Mount St. Mary's. UMW has won in blowouts, and VT has won fairly close ones. But they're still 2-0, and the only other team without a loss is 1-0 Maryland. The UMW Mothers are very good. They have enjoyed an influx of overseas talent to bolster a group that went 5-3 in conference play last year.

But you know all that.

Neither of these games will be the same sort of conference decider, because the Chesapeake Conference has too many games and too many variables. But starting 3-0 isn't a bad thing, and UMW and Virginia Tech both have the potential to get there.

Not Quite A Conference Decider

The MAC's top two teams are usually Bowling Green and Western Michigan, and those two programs meet up this weekend. But Louisville, Cincinnati, and Ohio all are making improvements, and this is a conference challenging the Chesapeake as one of the closest.

Louisville did lose to BGSU last week but mounted a nice comeback to make it close. Bowling Green coach Tony Mazzarella saw a pattern developing in his young team as the Falcons ran out to an early lead and saw their opponents claw their way back.

"Louisville has some good athletes at key positions; we just didn't make the tackles we needed to late," Mazzarella said.

Still, Andrew Quesnall and Dan Waltermeyer showed well in their first starts, and with Griffen Palmer moving to scrumhalf and Adam Regini to flyhalf, Bowling Green has experience at key spots but maybe needs a bit more time. The Falcons could be unseated by WMU this time.

So here are the D1AA games for the weekend, and our picks:


Lindenwood-Belleville at Davenport -- Davenport by 3 (D1AA-D1AA crossover game)
Virginia Tech at Mount St. Mary's -- Virginia Tech by 3
Georgetown at Salisbury -- Salisbury by 10
Maryland at Towson -- Towson by 4
Mary Washington at Virginia -- Mary Washington by 15
Yale at Columbia -- Yale by 2
Brown at Cornell -- Brown by 7
Harvard at Dartmouth -- Dartmouth by 12
Princeton at Penn -- Princeton by 5
Pitt at IUP -- Pitt by 11
Temple at Rowan -- Rowan by 3
West Chester at Villanova -- West Chester by 10
South Carolina at Alabama -- Alabama by 10
Ole Miss at Florida -- Florida by 12
Georgia at Tennessee -- Tennessee by 22
Rhode Island at Boston College -- Boston College by 14 (Non-Conf game. BC playing as an independent)
Ohio at Louisville -- Louisville by 1
Bowling Green at Western Michigan - BGSU by 6
Dayton at Miami -- Dayton by 11