NEW ORLEANS, LA – Sophomore Khalil Lynch broke free at midfield and raced untouched for the try as time expired to lead the Nazareth College Men's Rugby team to a thrilling 19-14 win over Marian University in the second match of the day as the Golden Flyers advanced to the semifinal round of the Survivor Bracket at the Collegiate Rugby Championships (CRC) May Madness 7's Tournament at the NOLA Gold Mine Stadium.
Nazareth won a pair of games Sunday in the Survivor Bracket after a close loss to James Madison in the opener Saturday afternoon. The Golden Flyers recovered from Saturday's 24-5 defeat to post a 38-0 victory over St. Scholastica in the Sunday morning match and then came from behind for the 19-14 win over Marian in the afternoon.
Nazareth will play McKendree University at 10 a.m. (central time) with the winner advancing to the Survivor Bracket championship game at 2:20 p.m. against the winner of Franciscan University and New Mexico Tech who play in the other bracket semifinal. The semifinal losers will play a third place match at 11:40 a.m.
Against Marian, the Knights scored two early trys to take a 14-0 lead with just 3:30 elapsed in the first half.
Nazareth battled back as sophomore Steven Beck made a cut forward and rambled in from 10 yards out for the try at the six-minute mark to cut the lead in half.
As time was running out in the first half, Lynch made a run for the try-line and was tackled around the neck near the line and was awarded the penalty try and automatic conversion to tie the score at 14-14 at the halftime break.
In the second half, both teams advanced the ball for stretches of time but neither could cross the line until late in the half when Marian broke free for the go-ahead try. The score was nullified as an illegal substitution was called which included a two-minute penalty against the Knights.
Playing with the man advantage, Nazareth carefully moved up the field and Lynch took off on a run from midfield as he cut back against the defense and raced in untouched for the game-winning score as time expired in the match for the 19-14 win.
In the St. Scholastica match, Lynch had a try while sophomore
Kyle Decker added two trys. Freshman Joe Sargent had a long run and try early in the second half and fellow freshman
Seth Guay added a late try off a line out play from 10 yards out. Nazareth led 19-0 at the half and scored three times in the second half for the 38-0 final score.
