By Alex Goff - FloRugby.com

Notre Dame College didn't make it into USA Rugby's D1A rankings yet, but made a big move to get there this coming week with a 27-14 defeat of Davenport in South Euclid, OH Sunday.

Davenport was coming off a 95-7 defeat of Michigan on Friday, but wasn't really fatigued. Instead, execution errors at crucial moments hurt the Panthers. NDC ran out to an early 12-0 lead. The forwards worked the platform nicely and then the ball went out wide to Marcus Tupuola, who raced into the corner.

Andrew Guerra scored on an eightman pick to make it 12-0. But Davenport would come back with two tries to lead 14-12.

"It was a great game," said Davenport head coach Harry King. "But when they had a good territorial position we scored, and when we did, we turned it over. We had those little errors that hurt us. We felt we matched them in the pack after some early problems."

In the second half, the NDC backs worked the space and RoNeill Reynolds scored to put the Falcons up 17-14. But NDC was making mistakes in the red zone, too. Twice they had a penalty close to the tryline and opted for a quick tap rather than a kick at goal or a lineout. Twice they lost the ball.

Eventually, though, Tupuola put together a nifty sequence to go over for his second, and with time winding down Tupuola made it three as he exploited a gap and outraced everyone to paydirt.

For Davenport, flyhalf Noah Zomberg is coming into his own, and new prop, Will Vakalahi, who played No. 8 in high school, looked like he belonged. Tupuola was a star for Notre Dame College, for sure, while prop Sam Kilkowsko looked green (because he is) but was a force with the ball in hand. Khalid Williams was also part of a strong tight five effort from NDC.

"We needed to pressure them more on defense," said Notre Dame College Head Coach Jason Fox. "Their kicking was phenomenal, and it was a very good, physical game. We've got some tough games coming up, but that's why we wanted to play at this level."

For Davenport, the execution with scoring chances was disappointing, but King said playing on the road at Buffalo next week will be a good chance to show improvement.

"I am actually excited to see the freshmen step up to the level they've been asked to," said King. Along with Vakalhi, Brandon Asbel, Lucas Robinson, and Ralph Tirivanhu were freshman who put in solid minutes.