As the saying goes, it’s math in the backs and physics in the forwards, and it looks like this past week was physics mid-term time in D1 college rugby. Our latest list of the top players of the week is dominated by standouts from the front eight.
Here's a look at the 10 players who cracked this week's honor roll:
Dacoda Worth
The Indiana No. 8 was a forward with the ball in hand, and he scored two early tries to set the tone in a tight, fractious Big Ten matchup with Ohio State that IU won by a try.
Noah Zomberg
The Davenport flyhalf (pictured below) led the Panthers in a crucial win against Clemson.
Ben Lehrmann
Wisconsin’s captain and blindside flanker (pictured below), Lehrmann led a staunch Badgers defense that clamped down on Michigan State in the second half and helped beat the upstart Spartans.
Mike Scarcella
Scarcella is not a forward, but he hits like one. Though Iona struggled to beat UMass on Friday, the Gaels center made a massive number of tackles to jolt his teammates into awareness that they were in a rugby game. Thanks to Scarcella’s physicality, Iona won 32-17.
Jake Russell
The Colorado State lock helped power the Rams early and then was part of a sterling comeback in the second half as CSU defeated Air Force.
Cole Zarcone
A hard-running and hard-hitting center was a scoring machine for Central Washington at the West Coast 7s, Zarcona (pictured below) helped CWU to the tournament title. In the final, CWU scored three tries, and Zarcone claimed two of them and set up the other as the Wildcats beat Arizona. CWU took the championship trophy and Zarcone was named MVP.
Matt Petrik
The James Madison loose forward, who has also spent some time in the backline, kept the momentum going even after JMU’s backline was decimated with injuries in the first half against Mount St. Mary’s. Forced to change their game plan a bit, the JMU players looked to Petrik to lead them to their eventual 26-19 win.
Jason McKenna
Binghamton shut out Syracuse 38-0 and lock forward McKenna notched two tries to get his team going offensively.
Mike Dotzler
Playing up front at hooker, Dotzler scored twice and was player of the game for Cortland as the Doggies remained unbeaten in Liberty Conference play.
Dirk van den Berg
Kentucky shocked just about everyone with a 54-5 defeat of Bowling Green, and van den Berg was in the middle of it all. The Wildcats hooker played a full 80 in a demanding game, showed a high work rate, ran support lines, and scored twice.