TAMPA - Tampa Pelicans captain and fly half Robbie Cribbs would be the first to tell you he didn’t have the best game of his career on Saturday. Cribbs kicking was far from its normal, accurate self.

But in the end, it didn’t matter. Cribbs made the one that mattered, a 18-meter penalty goal from in front of the posts in stoppage time that gave the Tampa Pelicans an 11-10 win against Jupiter and the Florida Rugby Union state under-19 title.

“This means a lot,” Cribbs said. “It means a lot to the coach, a lot of our players are new to the game, and it’s amazing to look at us. On day one, we weren’t close to a rugby team, and to look at us now, how far we’ve come, it’s amazing.”

Jupiter thought it had won its first state title a matter of minutes earlier after the Warriors finally took advantage of their man-advantage as Tom Black broke three through three tired Pelican tackler’s to score just to the right of the posts. Fernando Lopez converted the try to put the Warriors up 10-8 as the game entered stoppage time.

“The guys are going to keep their heads up,” Jupiter coach Sean Simon said. “They know they played a great season.”

The Pelicans grabbed back momentum on the restart. After a Jupiter penalty at the halfway line, scrum half Jake McFadden took off down the left touchline, gaining 35 yards inside the Warriors 22-meter line. After the ball was killed at the bottom of a ruck, the Pelicans won the ensuing scrum and moved the ball into the backs. Jupiter then held the ball at the bottom of the ensuing ruck, giving Cribbs the chance to kick for goal, which he took.

McFadden said he didn’t expect to gain as much territory as he did when he took the penalty.

“When I took the quick tap, I thought I was going to run into him and get an extra 10 yards for Robbie to kick downfield,” McFadden said. “The kid kind of moved out of my way and I just took off.”

The Pelicans had to play short-handed for the bulk of the second half as a procession of players went to the sin bin to serve 10 minute penalties, four for the Pelicans, two for the Warriors. The Pelicans also had winger Tony Chalk ejected for fighting, but the defense held firm as the Warriors tried to use their man-advantages. Simon said he had tried to make a tactical adjustment late in the game.

“I tried to make a switch to play against their forwards more because they were down in the pack, but my team just didn’t make the adjustment,” Simon said. “It was hard for them because of the home-field advantage they couldn’t hear me tell them, and they continued to play in the backs.”

Pelicans coach Dave McFadden said he was proud of the way his team defended.

“It was such a challenge, and they rose to the occasion,” Dave McFadden said. “We stress defense, because it takes time to develop rugby skills, these boys play football, so we focus on their natural gifts and that’s a big thing for us. I was very concerned, but the boys surpassed my expectations with the way they played defense.”

After matching penalty goals by Cribbs and Lopez in the first half left the game tied 3-3, Cribbs scored the first try of the game 15 minutes into the second half. After a knock on by Lopez 10 meters from his own try line, the Pelicans worked a play from the back of the scrum, with No.8 Charles Messal taking the ball from the back of the scrum. Jake McFadden looped around him to receive Messal’s pass, as did Cribbs, and McFadden absorbed a tackle before releasing Cribbs towards the right corner.

“We knew that we had an overload if I went with them,” Cribbs said. “The ref kind of hesitated to call it, but I was like ‘yeah, that’s a try’”

Jake McFadden said he thought the physical advantage he held over his counterpart a scrum half led him to call the play on the fly.

“I noticed their scrum half was a lot smaller than me a Charles,” Jake McFadden said. “So we just took advantage of it.”

The Pelicans now move on to the South Region Championship, which will be held at Middle Tennessee State in two weeks.