St. Pius X pulled off something of a shock result Thursday night, defeating the Katy Barbarians 17-15 on the final play of the game.

The result pushed St. Pius X to 6-3 and dropped Katy to 5-4 and ensured that both of those teams will be in the Rugby Texas playoffs. As a result, also, St. Thomas, a team St. Pius beat 10-0 earlier in the season, has been eliminated from the playoffs.

The result was a surprise in part because Katy had already beaten St. Pius this season, and St. Pius had entered a rough patch that also included a humbling 77-14 loss to Cy Fair two weeks ago. But that rough patch had also coincided with a spate of injuries that cost Pius seven starters. Of those, six were back for Thursday's game, and that made a huge difference in experience if nothing else.

"The guys just played with a lot of passion, we got almost everyone healthy, and they played to the 70th minute," said St. Pius X Head Coach David Selby.

The St. Pius defense was solid throughout the game, giving up three tries, but not allowing them due to breaks in the defense. All three Katy tries came as the result of penalties. Penalties also led to most of the St. Pius points. While Katy scored two tries in the first half, flyhalf David-John Selby struck three penalty goals into the teeth of the wind to keep his side in it 10-9.

In the second half, Selby added another penalty to put Pius ahead 12-10. With only a few minutes to go, Katy worked their way into Pius territory and bolstered by a penalty, got it over for the 15-12 lead. There was only time left for the restart, and what Katy needed to do was secure that kick and boot it to touch. However, no one laid claim to the ball and it bounced off the tuf. St. Pius co-captain Parker Johnson raced in, gathered the ball, and galloped over the goal line for the game-winner, 17-15.

"I was really proud of our defense," said Coach Selby. "We've worked on it a lot. The guys were tired. We used only one sub, but we wanted it just a little bit more. There was no give-up in the guys at all."

Katy was missing a couple of key players in a game they didn't need to win to make the playoffs, but certainly this was still a bit of a wakeup call.

There are still several games left to play, but the top eight for the playoffs seem set in Texas: