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The Bonnies are still alive, which is encouraging for men’s rugby Coach Danny Neighbour after his squad spent 25 minutes “killing ourselves.”

Down 10-0 to Dartmouth Saturday morning at the Marra Athletic Fields Complex, St. Bonaventure scored 28 unanswered points en route to a 41-17 victory over the Big Green to advance to the quarterfinals of the National Collegiate Rugby tournament.

Numerous turnovers — from sloppy lineouts and passes to mishandled kicks — allowed Dartmouth to control much of the first half. The Bonnies first serious advance past midfield didn’t come until well past the midway point of the half.

“We couldn’t execute anything. Maybe we were just trying to get ahead of ourselves because we were so excited to play today,” Neighbour said. “Warmups went well, the week’s prep went really well, but sometimes that’s not an indicator of how you start a game. We just couldn’t get out of our own way.”

But when Rocco Burdett scored and Dylan Walsh added the conversion with 11:50 to play to make it 10-7, the game flipped on its head. Billy Koina scored on a beautiful set piece off a midfield lineout to make it 12-0, and Walsh added a penalty kick on the final play of the half to make it 15-10.

When Manu Taula scored off a Sy Mendenhall steal less than 30 seconds into the second half to make it 20-10, Dartmouth was on its heels.

“To say I wasn’t worried (when trailing 10-0) would be a lie, but I was definitely confident once we got the ball and strung some phases together we would be OK,” Neighbour said. “You just can’t keep giving the ball away. That’s how you keep teams in games.”

A Walsh penalty kick and a try by Troy Heroldt gave the Bonnies a 28-10 lead 11 minutes into the half. A Dartmouth score and conversion cut it to 28-17, but over the last 15 minutes Mehdi Merah and Eddie Nelson added tries after Walsh’s third PK to close out the scoring.

“I give Dartmouth a lot of credit. They came in and didn’t back down,” Neighbour said. “Helluva pack, a really good scrum, and some really tough players. That first 30 minutes they made it really hard on us.”

The Bonnies (5-3), ranked No. 4 in the latest NCR Division I poll, will travel to Crestview Hills, Kentucky, next Saturday to face Thomas More University, winner of the Big Rivers Conference.

A win next Saturday will advance the Bonnies to the national semifinals Dec. 7 at Penn State-Berks with a trip to the title game in Houston Dec. 14 on the line.

SBU was the second seed out of Rugby East and Dartmouth the second seed from the Liberty Conference.

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