Sunday sees the two teams everyone expect to be there playing for the Cardinals Conference final, but it almost didn’t happen that way.

While Goff Rugby Report #3 Virginia Military Institute won comfortably, 58-0 over Virginia Commonwealth, #24 Old Dominion had all sorts of problems with #32 Mary Washington, coming back to win 29-25.

“It was a back-and-forth game,” said ODU Coach Mike Herron. “It was likely the most competitive of all three of the [Cardinals Conference] brackets. We scored first and we scored last, and that was the difference.”

Mary Washington played well and showed they are a DII program to be reckoned with, but we just edged out.

VMI, for their part, was able to get some younger players some game time.

“I was very pleased with how the young players kept their cool in what was pretty tough conditions,” said VMI Coach Wayne Howe. “It raining pretty hard so the ball was pretty slippery and were able to execute on offense. It's always great to blank a team but the fact that we scored that many points in tough conditions with a lot of second-side players was very pleasing.”

Both coaches said Sunday will be an even tough prospect. The teams have not met this year, as their regular conference game was rained out due to Hurricane Joaquin.

Only one team from the Cardinals Conference moves on to the national playoffs. Sunday’s winner takes on the Tri-State champion, which will also be decided Sunday.