Penn State sits alone at the top of the Rugby East Conference after the Nittany Lions defeated Army 29-13 Saturday in a battle of two undefeated teams.

Penn State led from start to finish, getting a penalty right after the initial kickoff, which was slotted by scrumhalf Jimmy Ronan, and building from there. After that initial Ronan penalty, the teams settled down for about 18 minutes. But midway through the first half PSU got a try when Ryan McNulty set up Connor Cassidy. Ronan converted for the 10-0 lead. Some good phase work put PSU in scoring position again and flanker Malcolm May carried it over to make Penn State’s lead 15-0.

Army got something going late in the first half, and some pressure on the Lions yielded two kickable penalties, both of which Jon Kim put over to make it 15-6 at the break.

But any thoughts of regaining momentum for West Point were dispelled when May pounded over for his second. Back from injury, the 2015 GRR Forward of the Fall has quickly regained his form, and was a big factor for Penn State on Saturday.

Ronan hit the conversion and PSU led 22-6. May, in the end, could not be stopped, and scored his third of the day to make it 29-6 with time almost up. Army got a try at the end of the game from Jeff Malm-Annan, but that was scant consolation.

“We just wanted to focus on getting the gain line every time we touched the ball,” said Penn State Head Coach Blake Burdette. “They made it hard for us, but we did a good job there. I also wanted us to just execute our pattern, and I thought we were patient and we did that.”

Burdette said his team got a couple of fortunate bounces, but added, “you make your own luck.”

Meanwhile, Wheeling Jesuit remains unbeaten (but with fewer games played than Army or Penn State ) after beating Kutztown 33-20. 

“It was a good, old-fashioned dogfight,” said WJU Head Coach Tom Duffy. “Both teams came to play. We just put together a game plan we thought would win, and we stuck to it.”

Also in Rugby East, St. Bonaventure secured an impressive 70-22 victory over West Virginia. Two tries from flanker Matt Williams and one from Stephan Tanner, and solid kicking from fly half Christian Artuso staked Bonnies to an early 24-0 lead. Tries from Matt Bergstol, Algonso De Falco, and Chaz Schwenk made it 39-10 at halftime. Francisco Herenu,, Pat McCornack, and De Falcon, plus two more from Schwenk, with Artuso kicking four more conversions capped it off.

Buffalo logged their first win of the season, upending Delaware in the Nickel City. 

So with the results in, the standings look like this:

All eyes are on the October 29 meeting between Wheeling Jesuit and Penn State in West Virginia. That game will likely decide the conference title.