Virginia Tech and West Chester will be going on to the NCR D1AA playoffs.
Observant fans will notice that the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) has not played a final yet, and they won't. With a play-in round coming up next weekend the teams in the conference held a conference call this past week to confirm that a two-game weekend was not in anyone's best interest.
The risk of injury to teams slated to go to the playoffs was enough for everyone to agree on a conference championship plan. It came down to this: the teams in the final would be judged on their overall record. If they played each other, then the winner of that earlier game would be #1.
West Chester and Virginia Tech did not play each other on October 18, with Virginia Tech winning, and therefore once VT won their semifinal against St. Joseph's this Saturday, they would be crowned MARC Champions.
As it was, Virginia Tech did in deed win over St. Joe's putting in an impressive 48-17 win over the Hawks.
"The Hokies are just having fun this season with every game we play," said captain Cooper Anderson. "Week-in and week-out we are adding to our game and bring something fresh every week. We pride ourselves in our diversity of try-scorers and believe we have weapons all over the field."
It certainly showed this week with an impressive win over a St. Joe's team that lost a very close game to West Chester and can score in a variety of ways, too.
For the Hokies senior lock Jack Raspanti has been and excellent carrier and defender. Senior hooker Aidan Chow makes sure the lineouts are clicking, while Lucas Bichy scored two tries in this game. Junior center Anthony Viselli scored a breakaway try from 60 meters out that was a statement score.
Anderson, who is back from injury at the right time, added "we have found our stride the last two games."
