DI-A
It was a home team kind of weekend as the DI-A playoffs opened last weekend. Each of the four home teams picked up victories and will now have to head onto the road for the quarterfinals. The closest of the matches was Davenport escaping with a 28-24 victory over Army. Reece Czarnecki scored very early on for Davenport to give them a five point lead before Brady Gent hit a penalty to increase it to 8-0. Army struck back but then Davenport answered to make it 15-7. Still, Army were right there are scored shortly before halftime to put the make at 15-12 at the break. Davenport scored to open the second half as both teams been back and forth with Army even taking a lead. However, Reese Oberlin scored a very late try to give the Panthers this win.
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The other close match of the weekend saw Colorado defeat San Diego State 22-17. The Aztecs lead 7-0 early on but three straight tries from the Buffaloes saw them go ahead. San Diego then replied to make it 17-17 at the half. Peter Heffelfinger scored an unconverted try in the second half to give Colorado the win. In California, Santa Clara beat Colorado State 49-12 while Cal Poly beat Wyoming 46-7.
The quarterfinals will see Santa Clara vs. St. Mary's, Colorado vs. Life, Cal Poly vs. Arkansas State, and Davenport vs. Lindenwood.
Varsity Cup DI-AA
Although the Varsity Cup main competition took center stage over the weekend the DI-AA competition featured many more tightly contested matches. In the South Division, Utah State narrowly defeated Claremont 25-22 on Claremont's home ground. The major exception to the tight match narrative was Utah Valley's 81-0 defeat of Cal Poly-Pomona. Next week Utah State will travel to Utah Valley.
In the North Division, the University of Washington thoroughly beat Weber State 27-0 in Seattle. Despite the rainy conditions the Huskies did well to pile on the points and keep the Wildcats at bay. Idaho State arguably pulled off the surprise of round by beating Washington State 32-25. Washington will travel to Pocatello to play Idaho State next week. The winner of those two matches will play at Rio Tinto on May 3rd.
DI-AA
The DI-AA playoffs begin next week with four regional pods of four teams each.