Two games are left in the Chesapeake Rugby Conference regular season and those two games have huge ramifications for how the conference will end up.

The winner of the regular season gets a seed to the fall national playoff, but the 2nd and 3rd teams also have a shot, as they play each other on November 9. The winner of that game could well be in the national playoffs, too.

What that means is five teams remain in the hunt for the playoffs.

Virginia Tech leads the conference with a 4-1 record and could clinch 1st with a win or a tie.

The one blemish on the Virginia Tech record is a 26-24 loss to Salisbury. Captain Kelly Fernandi said the team was missing a couple of players in the loss to Salisbury, but he said the problem more was the team just didn’t come together well in that loss. 

“We made a lot of mental errors,” he said. “We come out of that knowing we need to clean things up. We know what we’re capable of.”

So now it comes down to Virginia Tech vs. Maryland. If Tech wins or ties, it’s 1st place. If Maryland wins, the Terps can secure 1st place, and could even bump up to 2nd with a tie in which they score four tries.

In the other game, Salisbury plays Mount St. Mary’s. Both have had to shake off iffy results.

“We are better than we we played early in the season; we are limited by the school on preseason for our tuneup games so we’ve been starting slow,” said Salisbury Head Coach Bill Creese.

Salisbury is lamenting a poor decision on a late kickoff against Maryland that turned a lead into a tie 

Mount St. Mary’s can relate. After going 3-0, the Mount lost to Virginia Tech and a week later to Maryland. That dropped the Mount to 3-2 and in 5th place.

A win for MSM along with a Maryland loss will put the Mount in the top three. Even if Maryland gets a win or tie, if the Mount wins with a bonus point they bypass NC State for a top three spot. 

A win for Salisbury puts the Sharks in the top three. It’s possible, if Maryland beats Virginia Tech with no bonus points, and Salisbury wins with a bonus point, then Salisbury and Maryland would be tied in standings points, and tied on the head-to-head tiebreaker. Salisbury would possibly take 1st on points difference.

We told you it was tight.