The Penn State men's rugby team is moving on.

After beating Virginia Tech 20-12 in a steady rain on Saturday afternoon, the Ruggers' Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU) playoff final against Navy was snowed out yesterday.

However, the win against Tech would prove crucial to the Ruggers because now the team is moving on to the National playoff Sweet 16 in California.

"The guys were disappointed, but the mood is upbeat because we qualified to go to the national playoffs," Penn State men's rugby forwards coach Don Ferrell said.

For contributing to the team's victory over Virginia Tech, Brent Ilgen and Michael Petri were both given the honor of being named co-Men of the Match.

"They both played well," Penn State men's rugby coach Terry Ryland said.

"Petri did a super job playing defense and Ilgen was a force the whole second half."

As the Ruggers took to the soggy field Saturday afternoon, the team knew that it had to come out strong.

They did this as senior Josh Colegrove took the ball in for the first score of the game to put Penn State at an early 5-0 advantage just five minutes into the match.

While the rain picked up, so did the Ruggers offense as senior Timothy Adkins punched in another tri and sophomore Dominic Mara added the conversion to make it a 12-0 Ruggers lead.

After a penalty kick from Mara and another tri by freshman Mike Anderson, Penn State went into halftime with a comfortable 20-0 lead.

"We played really well, but we let them get back in the game," Ryland said.

Virginia Tech used halftime to compose itself and the team came out for the second half as strong as the downpour accompanying it.

Tech scored an early tri to cut the lead to 20-5 and after Mara missed a penalty kick, the Hokies punched in another tri and conversion to cut the Ruggers lead to 20-12.

"They came out a little more fired up then we did in the second half," Penn State men's rugby president Adam Zilcoski said.

"We were up early by a lot, but Virginia Tech to their credit came back."

The Ruggers defense dug in and would not let the Hokies score again to seal the deal for Penn State and advance to another rematch against Navy.

"They gave us a hard match," Ilgen said.

"They played really well, their forwards played an aggressive game, but I thought we did a good job playing some defense on them."

With the horrible field conditions from the Tech game and the continuing snowfall, the final game against Navy was cancelled.

However, the win against Virginia Tech would be enough to earn the Ruggers a co-championship of the MARFU league and a trip to the playoff game held in California.