It’s all about how you finish, and for American International College, it’s been like that all weekend.

The Yellowjackets won three tense games in the CRC Qualifier at the LVI, putting them in what promises to be a tense final against Arkansas State.

The first tense game came on Thursday in pool play against Utah. In that game AIC led 17-5 but saw Utah storm back to make it 22-19 with time running out. AIC was aided by a needless late hit on a try by Christian Adams. The result was a penalty at midfield after the conversion, and Jihad Khabir chipped ahead to score a second try.

But back to the final seconds. AIC took a yellow card, and down a man saw Utah surge to the corner. Adams got on his horse and made the tackle just before the line to end the game and get the win for AIC. 

The second tense game came in the Cup Quarterfinals, when AIC came back from 12-0 down to beat Lindenwood. That set up a semifinal against St. Joseph’s. St. Joe’s had made it through despite playing against teams that always seemed much bigger than they are. They did it with smart play and skill, and showed that against AIC as well, as they scored twice early to lead 12-7. But AIC took the lead in the first half with a brilliant team try and then their power started to show. They hit hard, powered through tackles, and showed more emotion.

The tries started to slow, and AIC led 31-12. But St. Joe’s mounted their own comeback, scoring twice late. The second half of this game was a long one - AIC Head Coach Josh Macy said he timed it at 14 minutes - and at one point AIC was two men down as they had a yellow card and a player in distress.. Still AIC held on.

“Its an honor to be here and play in this competition and be part of the international games,” said Curtis Werner, who helped lead AIC to the final. “But at the same time all of this is a distraction. SO we’ve needed to stay focused.”

AIC clearly has a chip on their shoulder as they have to overcome ignorance about a school that’s been around since the 1880s.

“Not a lot of people know who AIC is, and a lot of times we come in as an underdog,” said Werner. “To us it doesn’t really matter. We just play the way we play. And people not know us means we know we have to prove ourselves. No one will ever give us anything.”

And to Adams, who scored some key tries and made that big tackle against Utah, it is about how you finish.

“When we played a man down we hustled, we picked it up,” Adams told Goff Rugby Report. “On that tackle, I saw a fast guy and I needed to hustle or else. We knew people saying we have Utah as the final game of [Day One] and people’s faces were like Oh! It was a great game.”