For 80 minutes the battle of the Barbarians was as even as it gets so it's only fitting that the match came down to a final penalty from the Wichita Barbarians to defeat the Tri City Barbarians 30-28 for the men's DII title.
The match didn't get off to a bright start for Wichita as Tri City got on the board first through a Devon Benedict try. That try came after a series of back and forth phases from each team but was well deserved for Tri City.
Wichita caught up break with nearly a half and hour gone when Tri City was shown a yellow card. With the man advantage Stephen Wright was able to find the gap in the defense to level up the score at 7-7.
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As the back and forth nature of the match continued it was Tri City that would get on the board next. Ryan Wall, who had a hand in the first try with a good run, finally picked up a try of his own to put Tri City up 14-7 with only minutes left before halftime. Still, Wichita fought back capitalizing on Tri City mistakes and a fantastic move from Josh West to even things up at 14-14 heading into the break.
Wichita took their first lead of the match about ten minutes into the second half when Seth Akpovona scored. They then added a penalty from Dustin Fross to extend their lead to 22-14. Still, it wouldn't be long before Tri City were back in it with a try from Jonathan Beyerlein to narrow the gap to one.
A try from Derek Hargrave put Wichita up 27-21 but a yellow hard for a dump tackle gave Tri City the room they needed to retake the lead at 28-27 with a converted Samisoni Hafoka try. After the try they continued to keep on the pressure and when time was up on the card there were only a few minutes left in the match.
When Wichita did get the ball back they had a huge break that looked like would turn into the winning try but a video review called the play back. Wichita kept with it and when Tri City was penalized to to the left of the sticks but not too far out Fross would step up and hit the kick on the final play of the match to seal the win.