It's halfway through the New England Collegiate Rugby Conference and we're no closer to figuring out who will win.

After an early loss, UVM has run off four straight wins, including Saturday's 38-16 defeat of Boston University. Meanwhile, in a clash between 4-0 Coast Guard and 3-1 Rhode Island, it was Rhode Island that came up winners, leaving three teams tied at the top of the conference with identical 4-1 records. Only one bonus point separates the three teams.

Rhode Island was coming off a humbling loss to those same UVM boys, and so wanted to get started right against Coast Guard. The visitors mishandled the opening kickoff and that allowed Rhode Island to put Adam Nabb through a gap and under the posts. Rhode Island maintained offensive pressure on the Bears, using grubber icks to keep Coast Guard backpedaling, and then pressuring at the breakdown. Nabb got his second at the 14-minute mark as he got the ball and space and took the corner. Four minutes later, Ryan Malloy returned a clearing kick across midfield and then sent fullback Tom Morini loose down the sideline. Morini sidestepped one defender and outraced another to the left corner and turned to the posts, with Anthony Kennedy’s conversion, Rhode Island led 19-0 and looked set for the rout.

But Coast Guard regrouped and punsihed some ineffective URI kicks to put Nick Dunbar in at the corner. Rhode Island pushed on and got a penalty from Kennedy to make it 22-5 at halftime.

The second half opened as the first, with the Rams flooding the Coast Guard defensive zone, and Kennedy added another penalty kick a minute into the half. The Rhode Island defense seemed to relax a bit at that point, and the Coast Guard backline used its ball handling skills to find room to run. Lou Depaulis ran in a try at the 49 minute mark, Alan Shaw converting, and Ricky Moore followed with another try just six minutes later to close the gap to 25-17, putting a bonus point within reach, and worrying Rhode Island a bit.

But the hosts snuffed out any hopes of a comeback with Kennedy's third penalty, followed by a long break by Morini for a try at 67 minutes.

That ended the scoring at 33-17.

So there are five games left and all to play for, with the three top teams all playing each other once more. This coming week Coast Guard visits Vermont, and then Coast Guard hosts Rhode Island on Halloween. But the biggest day may well be the last, as Vermont plays at Rhode Island on November 14, the final day of league play, and likely the conference title will be in the balance.