Rankings look like they may have a shakeup this week after Saturday’s college rugby results.

Already we’ve seen #22 (D1A) AIC tie unranked Fordham 17-17, and #8 Navy struggle to be D1AA #1 Mary Washington.

“We didn’t execute our game plan of playing in the 15-meter channels,” lamented UMW head coach Min She Chae. “We got caught up in their game and didn’t move the ball enough - 15 knock-ons didn’t help our cause, either.”

But that was just the beginning.

Surprises

Saturday, #50 University of Notre Dame held off #25 Ohio State 33-28.

"We were happy with it," understated Notre Dame head coach Justin Hickey, whose team has beaten Michigan and Tennessee, but was smacked around by Davenport last week. "Last week we didn’t do ourselves any favors. We had four unforced turnovers near their line. We had 53% of the possession and lost by 41 points."

Led by some impressive work from captain Mike Matarazzo and with a sneaky try from scrumhalf Jake Randall keeping Ohio State guessing, the Irish notched a key win against a well-regarded D1A opponent.

In the Red River Conference, #27 Texas A&M followed the rankings and beat #32 Texas, but the winning margin was 69 points, 69-0 in fact. Dutch Patterson scored three and Ross Navarro scored two in a game the Longhorns would certainly love to have back.

Unranked Colorado edged #33 Colorado State 20-17. Led by a massive defensive effort from center threequarter Soren Heitmann, the Buffaloes reversed a recent trend of the Rams winning this rivalry game.

"The seniors were really happy," said CU head coach Chris Hanson. "These guys are just workhorses. Our defense is solid, and our [attacking] is coming together."

In the Liberty Conference, Connecticut beat Fairfield, but the scoreline, 27-20, didn’t exactly light the Huskies’ prospects on fire. Mid-Atlantic's West Chester defeated a solid-looking Temple team 26-10 with new starter Nick Udovich scored two tries from the flyhalf position. Ryan Morley was outstanding at center and kicked three of four conversions, while scrumhalf Nick D'Angelo was excellent.

To Form

Not every game bucked the form book. Several went as expected. Army (#7) beat Iona (#15) in what was a carbon copy of Iona’s loss to Navy - a close game in which the victor pulled away late.

Arkansas State (#9) slammed Mississippi 109-0. No surprise there.  Wheeling Jesuit was ranked in FloRugby’s Top 40 until only recently but won’t move up after getting hit 48-5 in a Rugby East Conference game against #11 Notre Dame College. Also in the Rugby East, St. Bonaventure, currently #24, beat unranked Buffalo. 

Wisconsin (#30) struggled with Michigan State (#38), as expected, but won 36-22, and a relatively close Liberty game, Northeastern 32 UMass 17, could also be characterized as being what you'd figure on paper.

SCRC contender South Carolina battled Georgia and the heat to win 29-10. Purdue held off Michigan 22-12 in a second straight strong performance from the Boilermakers.

Big Scores

In the Liberty there were a few blowouts, too. Boston College took care of Rhode Island 49-7 with No. 8 Hank Mens scoring three tries and Noah Hopkins chipping in two. Syracuse beat Brockport in another Liberty Conference clash 74-12.

In a D1A-D1AA crossover game, #16 Davenport beat D1AA #14 Western Michigan 84-7. In the D1AA MAC, #13 D1AA Bowling Green shut out Dayton 43-0 with Levi Muter scoring three.

Chesapeake Remains Close

The Chesapeake continues to hit us with close games: #16 Mount St. Mary’s had to work very hard to down #35 Maryland 46-41. James Madison, ranked #15 last week, was upset by Towson 25-24 with Chris Young scoring two and Jacob Commadori kicking well and scoring a try when his own kick ahead was clocked back into his arms.

Ivy Not So Close

In the Ivy League, the three games were all comfortable wins for someone. Yale made a statement with a massive win over Cornell 82-5. Lucas Holter led the team with three tries. 

And D1AA #3 Dartmouth defeated #35 Harvard 56-7 in a game that did much to establish who is top dog in that league. No surprise that it’s still Dartmouth. Fuller Winton got a hat trick and Pat Sheehy was good for 14 points with the boot. Jarrett Lewis, Mike Weir, Andrew Joubert, and Marwan Zelmat also touched down for the Big Green.

Penn beat Columbia 40-10 with a nicely even attack that saw the likes of Teddie Levenfiche, Avery Hoffman, Nick Biden, and Adam Kirsch score.