William Paterson has won the Tri-State Conference, defeating RPI 34-19 in Sunday's championship match to vault WPU into the national playoffs.

Paterson came back from a 16-10 halftime deficit to defeat a very intelligent and savvy RPI team. 

"They came at us very hard," said WPU Head Coach Kisset Chirengende. "RPI is a really good team."

Forced to put a relatively new player in at fullback, WPU was vulnerable to the kicking game, and RPI figured that out quickly.

Using the boot, RPI put Paterson under pressure and turned that pressure into four scoring opportunities—two tries and two penalty goals—and took the lead.

But WPU adjusted. Center Joshua Amoako was moved to fullback and his counter-attacking ability helped neutralize RPI's kicking game.

"He's very athletic and with that adjustment we were able to get into our shape and run through the phases," said Chirengende. "But we also needed to slow the ball down. RPI was really strong off turnovers and quick ball."

That all started to work, and No. 8 John Guerriero was a big part of that, scoring three tries, sparking WPU's comeback as they scored four tries to RPI's lone penalty goal to win the conference.