It's all drama in the Atlantic Rugby Conference in NCR's D1, as both games went down to the wire and were decided by the smallest of margins.
Wheeling and Kutztown went back and forth Saturday with Wheeling going up by two tries, only to see the Bears storm back and take the lead.
Wheeling, always dangerous if you make a turnover or are careless in your kick-chase, zoomed back to regain the lead.
"We went into halftime up but we talked about how important it is to have the momentum and if you lose it, how important it is to get it back," said Kutztown Coach Jeff Duke. "And the guys worked really hard to stay composed."
The reserves came on and helped keep the tempo up, and as time wound down KU inched closer and closer and finally were behind 36-34. They got a penalty, and co-captains Ben Parkinson and Henry Thomas kiboshed any thoughts of going quickly or going for touch, and pointed to the posts.
Center Ben Collison then calmly slotted the penalty to win it for Kutztown 37-36.
"We are a young team with a small number of seniors who have shown a lot of good leadership," said Duke. "And they really took a step today. The subs did a good job to bring an impact. We had Tuli Leuga start at scrumhalf and he was really good, and then Blake Guthrie came on and they both showed poise and ran our attack well."
The key, though, is Kutztown managed to pull out a win after showing some improvements in performance. And again, this is a tight conference.
