The Men’s Division I-AA semifinals kick off Saturday at Penn State - Berks, with defending national champion Kentucky taking on Liberty champion UMass at 11 a.m. ET, followed by Virginia Tech versus Bowling Green at 3 p.m. The winners advance to the national championship game December 14 at SaberCats Stadium in Houston, TX.
Undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky is the odds-on favorite heading into the weekend, having run the table to a second-straight SCRC title before defeating MARC champion St. Joe’s, 63-17, in the quarterfinals. Head coach Sam Enari says the team is excited and as focused as ever, taking nothing for granted.
“The first text I got after the (quarterfinal) was from senior captain Jack Phillips,” said Enari. “The text read, ‘job’s not done’.”
Phillips marshalls the Wildcat backs, and he’s bolstered by the talented Keough brothers, but flanker Holden Hahn is the leader of the pack, winning MVP of the national championship game as a sophomore. Enari has rested Hahn the last few weeks to keep him fresh for the final push, but he’s expected to be in the lineup against the Minutemen.
UMass earned its way to Berks with a 27-12 quarterfinal win over LSU, which finished third in the SCRC. All-American No. 8 Arthur Dehareng scored twice in the game, and flyhalf John McGoey added 10 points with a try, conversion and penalty kick. The Minutemen have fallen in the quarterfinals each of the last two seasons and are making their first-ever semifinal appearance.
Eliminating UMass last fall was Virginia Tech, which fell in the semifinals to Louisville. The Hokies, 2021 and 2022 national champions, are back in the final four, this time to face Bowling Green, who unseated the Cardinals to win the MAC. The Falcons defeated Clemson, 29-18, in the quarterfinal, and the Tigers came within a point of nipping Kentucky in the SCRC final, falling 8-7, indicating Bowling Green is capable of going all the way.
The formidable Falcon forwards are led on the field by No. 8 Phil Tracey, who scored three tries in the quarterfinal win. They’re led on the sideline by head coach Tony Mazzarella, alumnus and the program’s all-time leading scorer. Between Tony and his father Roger, Bowling Green has been coached by the Mazzarellas for 40 years.
In stark contrast, the Hokies are player-coached, as they were when they went back-to-back. To return to the semifinals for the fourth year in a row, Virginia Tech needed overtime to get past Boston College, 44-39. Though the program has been here a lot recently, the Hokies have experienced a lot of turnover between semesters, with only a couple of starters from last year’s semifinals returning in flanker Clay Rosenberger and fullback Brandon Eng.
All games will be available on The Rugby Network+.
