GLENDALE, Colo. – In the Rugby Super League final, the New York Athletic Club faced the reigning champion, Belmont Shore in an edge of your seat thriller, culminating the RSL’s last 12-weeks in appropriate barn-burning fashion.

NYAC and Long Beach’s Belmont Shore found itself in two overtimes before NYAC finally finished Belmont off with a penalty kick, giving them the 31-28 win in sudden death.

In fact, it seemed to be a match built around penalty kicks, as the first nine points and the last nine points of the match were all contingent on that scoring method.

Boston Shore kicked it off, literally, with fullback Valanese Malifa scoring six early points for the Whalers. NYAC responded with their own by Luke Milton at six minutes, but later at 22 minutes NYAC scored its first try of the game and controlled an obvious momentum shift.

Jackson Wagener started the East Coast team out, touching one down for NYAC, while Luke Milton converted to give NYAC its first lead of the match at 10-6. NYAC’s second try by Christian Mayo came just five minutes later and helped boost their lead to 17-6 before Belmont Shore’s Henry Bloomfield scored a try in the last moments of the first half.

With only six points between them, both teams came out in the second half ready to play and in fact, held each other scoreless for the next 16 minutes. Justin Hundley jumpstarted the scoring sequence for NYAC, as he scored a drop goal and a try to make the lead 25-11. Belmont Shore obviously wouldn’t go down easily, however, and scored 14 consecutive points to bring the game to a tie at 25 and push the match into overtime.

From there on out, it was once again all about the penalty kicks as neither team would be able to finish an offensive effort for more than three points. Both Milton and Malifa added one in their overtime halves, and as time ran out in their sudden death, Milton added the game winning kick at goal.

“At the end, it was such a see-saw match,” NYAC’s Mike Tolkin said. “Our guys were on their last legs and had to dig really deep for that final push. They held on and proved they had the mental toughness they needed to pull out the win.

“We lost to Belmont Shore earlier this year, but today we stepped it up and didn’t allow them to push us around like they did before. We have to give their team credit, though, they never gave up and continued to make it as hard as possible for us. That is why they make the Championships year after year,” Tolkin added. “they are always consistently strong and will overpower you in the mauls.”

The Rugby Super League is the premier rugby league in the U.S., and although it isn’t necessarily run by the same competitive structure as the rest of USA Rugby’s divisional club competition, it has in the past chose to hold its finals at the USA Rugby Men’s Club Championships, making this event for USA Rugby,  just that much more anticipated.

Prior to the RSL feature match, today’s semifinal matches really set the tone at the USA Rugby Men’s Club National Championships at Glendale’s Infinity Park.

The Glendale Raptors were able to pull off a last second 23-22 victory in front of its home crowd in Division I action. Glendale found itself trailing to the favored Pearl City club 15-0 at half, but with help from the boot of Mike Graham, Glendale slowly inched its way back until it was within striking distance with only few minutes remaining. 

 “This win is a real testament to how hard we train and the mentality of never giving up,” Glendale’s Mike Graham said. “We were so looking forward to playing Pearl City and our entire team absolutely pulled through.”

In what will mark the end of their second full season, the Raptors will go on to play Georgia’s Life University tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. for the Championship.

Life also walked in to today’s semifinal match as the underdog as it faced the Division I top-seed, Olympic Club. Life was able to jump out to an early 13-0 lead, but also saw its fair share of intense moments as Olympic club wouldn’t go down without a fight and eventually tied the score at 13, just minutes after half. Life wouldn’t let up again, however and would ultimately become 30-20 victors over the Olympic Club.

Olympic Club and Pearl City will also meet tomorrow in the consolation match at 10:45 a.m.

In Division II action, Brandywine stomped Detroit 31-8, while Red Mountain beat Wisconsin 39-22.  Red Mountain will face Brandywine in tomorrow’s DII Championship at 2:30 p.m. while Detroit and Wisconsin will kick off for the DII Consolation at 9 a.m. (MDT).

The Division III Championship finalists were decided in Austin, this year, leaving the top two squads to face off  this weekend in Glendale. The undefeated Michiana squad will meet a very dominant Reno side. Both teams are set to move up to Division II sooner rather than later and this final match, set for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, promises to be a competitive one.

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