Principia has won the Gateway Conference with a 32-14 defeat of Southern Illinois University Sunday.

Principia made the final after beating Pitt State 49-22 on Saturday, while SIU beat Missouri S&T 19-14, scoring two tries in the final 15 minutes to erase a 14-7 deficit.

The Thunder Chickens started the season with a loss to SIU, but rebounded to win their next two and make the four-team playoff. Head Coach Ward Patterson said his squad is a young one, a third of them freshmen. Patterson made several position changes among his returning players, and all of that made for a team still settling in at the beginning of the fall. So a loss to SIU was not a surprise.

“The guys kept their chins up,” said Patterson. “They saw they could perhaps get by SLU [St. Louis University]. ONce they did that they started believing, ‘hey, we can do it.’” 

Coming into the playoffs, Principia started to put it all together. They are quick and dynamic and they scored quickly and early against Pitt State, and Pitt couldn’t catch up. On Sunday, it was more of the same. SIU had pummeled Principia earlier in the season, but the Thunder Chickens held onto the ball, and kept up the pressure.

Four times early in the game, Principia made it to the SIU 22 meter line, got penalties, and put the ball over for three points. Just like that they were up 12-0. Then the backline, led by flyhalf Zeya Kyaw and center Scott Marunde, took over.

“It was a full team effort, all the way through the reserves,” said Patterson. “They kept the energy up and kept playing, and that’s how we’ll do it from now on.”