Schuylkill River prevailed in the men’s premier division of the 24th-annual Slug 7s Saturday in Columbia, Md., beating the rival Maryland Exiles in the final - a rematch of the Mid-Atlantic’s first qualifier tournament in Wilmington, Del.

With the Exiles and Schuylkill finishing first and second in both of the MAC’s Qualifiers, they’ve mathematically clinched the region’s bids to 7s Nationals ahead of the final tournament June 26, again hosted by Rocky Gorge..

The same nine teams from the first qualifier returned to play at Slug 7s, which featured over 50 teams from seven states across six divisions. The men’s premier division was divided into three pools with the Exiles, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh in Pool A; Schuylkill River, Baltimore-Chesapeake, and Washington in Pool B; and Norfolk, NOVA, and Rocky Gorge in Pool C.

The Exiles, NOVA, and Schuylkill River claimed the first three seeds in the quarterfinals and, with Raleigh failing to appear at the tournament, each team advanced to the playoff round. In the first round, the Exiles easily dispatched Washington, 33-0, NOVA scored a try on the last play of the game against Rocky Gorge to win 24-17, Schuylkill River beat Norfolk 24-12, and Baltimore-Chesapeake outlasted Pittsburgh 12-7. In the semifinal round, the Exiles ran away from Baltimore-Chesapeake 21-5 and Schuylkill River blanked NOVA 10-0.

The final featured a rematch from two weeks ago between the Maryland Exiles and Schuylkill River. The game was extremely competitive and wasn’t decided until the last minute of play.

The Exiles struck first with Trevor Tanifum recovering a fumbled Schuylkill exchange to score after a 25-meter run. The try was converted and made the score 7-0. Shortly after, Schuylkill’s Randy Helsman was yellow-carded for a dump tackle, and the Exiles took advantage immediately off the penalty with a try by Owen Lentz. The conversion was successful to make the score 14-0.

Once their man served his time in the sin bin, Schuylkill was able to put their first points on the board, with Bruce Dolan finding the try zone after a penalty within the five-meter line to make it 14-5. Schuylkill had the last try of half where Louis Tulio ran around the corner to touch the ball down in the middle to close the gap to 14-12.

After halftime, Schuylkill came out firing with two tries by Gareth Jones and Tulio. Jones scored after he was found uncovered on the left side of the field, and Tulio scored his second try of the game after a five-meter penalty. Both conversions were missed and Schuylkill grabbed the lead, 22-14.

After four straight tries by Schuylkill, the Exiles responded by scoring the next two to reclaim the lead. Following a beautiful dummy pass, Toshi Palamo scampered up the middle to score and then after a big hit by Iosia Luka, the Exiles got the ball out wide to Akinola Raymond for the try. Only one of the kicks was converted and the Exiles had regained the lead 26-22. Time running out and down by four points, Schuylkill made their final push, and Pat Boyle took ball off the weak side of a ruck to score. Jamie Gregory converted the kick, and the whistle blew soon after. Schuylkill was victorious 29-26 and booked their trip to Nationals.

On what he thought of the final, Schuylkill’s coach Chris Ryan said, “We need hard fought battles so we are ready for Nationals. When one team rolls through, it doesn’t do anybody any good at Nationals.”

Baltimore-Chesapeake shutout NOVA 31-0 to win the third-place game of the men’s premier division. The men’s open final came down to another rematch with the Maryland Exiles defeating Schuylkill River again. In the men’s social division, Team Zippy (PAC Alumni) beat Blue Ridge (Warrenton) 19-14. The DC Furies won against NOVA, 19-7, to capture their second women’s premier tournament victory of the season, and the Maryland Exiles Women beat the DC Furies to win the women’s open title.

Reflecting on what is means for his team to advance to Nationals, Ryan stated, “We have another week to get our first side together. We are going up to Princeton next weekend to play in the northeast qualifier in the premier division against all the good teams. Then come back down to Rocky Gorge [for the MAC Finals] and put our final group together and show them what we got again. Get ready for Nationals and get a good seed.”

With the Maryland Exiles and Schuylkill River advancing to Nationals, the results of the MAC Finals in two weeks will determine who goes to Seattle as the MAC champion and who goes as the runner-up.

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