VICTORIA - It was an ending appropriate for one of the best amateur sport rivalries on Vancouver Island.
James Bay scored on the last play of the game to edge University of Victoria Vikes 20-16 in CDI Premier League play at Wallace Field on Feb. 19.

Stymied for most of the match by strong Vikes tackling, the Bays back-line broke off a 60-metre scoring play, the ball moving between four James Bay backs before left winger Dan Harlow touched the ball down in the far right corner of the Vikes' endzone.

A harshly-angled convert by outside half Jeff Williams sailed innocently wide, and then the referee's whistle blew to end time.

The Vikes fall to 2-1 and travel to Vancouver next weekend to tackle Ravens.

"We lost on the last play of game as James Bay went nearly the full field," said Vikes head coach Doug Tate. "A poor defensive play by us gave them an overlap and they went the distance."

James Bay opened scoring about five minutes into the match on a penalty goal by Williams.

The Vikes notched the score at 3-3 after a Nathan Hirayama penalty goal. Later in the half, UVic outside centre Bryn Keys scored the match's first try, but James Bay's John Moonlight scored a try late in the half, to tie the game at 8-8 just before halftime.

The Vikes regained the lead at 13-8 after Hirayama made a brilliant chip kick into James Bay territory that Willem du Plessis neatly grabbed after beating both back lines down the field to score. 

The Bays threatened for several minutes with the Vikes hemmed inside their 10-metre line before a misdirection play off a set scrum resulted in James Bay scrum half Spence Dalziel waltzing in untouched for a try. Then Williams knocked through a convert from dead centre of the field, from 10 metres out to give James Bay the lead again at 15-13.

Hirayama booted a penalty goal to give the Vikes a 16-15 lead, with his go-ahead points coming after a poor decision by James Bay's Number 8, Callum Morrison, which led to an offside penalty that Hirayama capitalized on from about 25 metres out.

But James Bay scored the late try to win by four points and clinch the Vkes-Bays Challenge Cup.

The Cup is a series established through the efforts of Ian Stewart, former Chair of the UVic Board of Governors and a former Bays player. The challenge trophy is intended to enhance the development of excellence in citizen-athletes through competition between the UVic Vikes and James Bay AA.

"It's a very disappointing loss based on the way we played and basically having the game won with no time left on the clock," Tate added. "It was a very physical game where the Vikes dominated the scrums and lineouts. Unfortunately, Andrew Tiedemann was yellow carded with 10 minutes to play and it resulted in James Bay taking advantage of UVic playing a man down."

"We had some blown defensive assignments which resulted in James Bay getting back into the game and eventually winning."