St. Louis University’s 33-8 defeat of Principia College Saturday may well have put the clamp on the Gateway Conference for the Billikens.

With the victory, SLU is 3-0, and only UMS&T is similarly unbeaten (but not really similarly, as the Miners of the University of Missouri Science & Technology have yet to play a conference game.

Every other Gateway team has lost a game, and three have lost to SLU. Principia, the 2013-14 USA DII College 7s champions, were certainly one of the Billikens’ main rivals, so Saturday’s result puts SLU squarely in the driver’s seat.

And they got there thanks in large part to the outstanding play of Jon Stackpole, as the unassuming hooker was player of the game, and a force in all areas of the game. In his last semester of play, he scored two tries, organized play around the field, and, said Coach Justin Whitton, dominated.

So is that it? Is it over before it’s begun? Whitton didn’t saw as much but had to conceded that with Washington University, Central Missouri, and Principia out of the way, things are looking good.

“What we want to do is prepare ourselves for the playoff time when we meet the likes of Whitewater and Duluth,” said Whitt0n. “Those guys are huge, and try as we have, we can’t match their size. So we have to figure out ways around that. That’s why we’ve schedule some of the games we’ve scheduled.”

Among them, Notre Dame College, which made it to the national DII semis last year and now is in DIAA. St. Louis bowed out in the Round of 16 31-26 to UW- Stout, and wants to get further this year.

This coming weekend, UMS&T visits SLU in a game that, if the Billikens win, would virtually clinch the Gateway for the hosts. Washington is at UCM with a shot at second place on the line, and Missouri Kansas City, fresh off a midweek non-conference loss to Lindenwood-Belleville, plays at 1-1 Maryville.