Stony Brook University is happily on top of the Empire Conference with a 5-0 record after they beat the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point Saturday, and should have not trouble claiming the title whether there’s a championship game or not.

There might not be, because #1 and #2 are supposed to play off, but Kings Point has informed the Empire Conference that they can’t play that game because a huge chunk of their team will be on ships traveling the globe as part of their education.

Stony Brook Head Coach Jerry Mirro said he’d like to play someone, and right now it looks like that someone could be SUNY Binghamton, which moved to 2-2 with a 34-20 defeat of Colgate, or the surprising Syracuse, which overcame some lopsided early losses to move to 2-2 with a 33-17 defeat of SUNY Brockport Sunday night.

If either of those teams pitch up, it will be against a very, very strong Stony Brook Seawolves outfit, albeit a team that led Kings Point 27-12 at halftime, and then only scored three points in the second half.

“We just took advantage of our opportunities in the first half,” said Mirro. “We turned their possession over and made it work. I think in the second half we went into more of the defensive mode. They had great field position so we had to play really good defense, and we did.”

But, added Mirro, “those Kings Point guys are strong and fit. They keep coming at you. They want an at-large bid next spring when some of their players come back and I think they deserve it.”

For his part, Kings Point Head Coach Ali Nazir said Stony Brook was the only team he’d seen that could match his team’s fitness. Mirro wasn’t surprised at the comment.

“Oh yeah, I put the guys through some crazy workouts,” he said. “We did hang with them, but I don’t think the whole game. We were with them for about 74 minutes, so we can be better.”

It was an exciting, entertaining rugby game, good for the game. But, said Mirro, the Stony Brook players know that somewhere there’s a better team waiting.

“The kids are not content,” he said.”Every week we set a new goal, and we push each other to get better. We want to play a playoff game because we want that challenge. And we want to play in the ACRC Bowl weekend for the same reason. We are playing well, but we want to get better, too.”