Penn State defeated the United States Naval Academy 22-6 Saturday in an unlovely display at the Prusmack Rugby Center in Annapolis.

With rain making play tough and both sides confessing frustration with the refereeing, the game was a stop-start affair that entered halftime with the teams deadlocked at 0-0.

“I can’t remember the last time I coached a game that was 0-0 at halftime,” said Navy Head Coach Mike Flanagan. “For two teams that in the past have played some really exciting, expansive rugby, there was not a lot of that going on today.”

Penn State got their game going a little bit better in the second half after figuring out what the ref wanted at the breakdown. Greg Voigt, Ryan Goulding, Chris Saint and Dom Difalco all scored tries in the second half for PSU, with Joe Baker adding one conversion, Jack McAuliffe put in an outstanding performance for Navy at fullback and kicked two penalties.

“Navy played great defense, but I think we played pretty good defense as well,” said PSU Director of Rugby Don Ferrell. “I was happy to see our backs score, and see us play better than last week.”

Navy played a man down for about 50 minutes but Flanagan said that only influenced the scoring of PSU’s final try. The other tries came down to mistakes or mental breakdowns on Navy’s part, he said.

Penn State 22
Tries: Voigt, Goulding, Saint, Difalco
Convs: Baker

Navy 6
Pens: McAuliffe

Army edged an injury-riddled Kutztown 30-25 to stay unbeaten, while Ohio State beat Rutgers 38-15.

That puts the D1-A Rugby East conference standings as follows