The University of Victoria Vikes men's rugby team survived a scare on the road to win 39-38 at Burnaby Lake in the final game of Canadian Direct Insurance Premier Division Rugby regular season play.

#Beau Parker# led the Vikes in scoring with two tries, while #Pat Riordan#, #Ian Manly#, #Phil Mack# and #Willem duPlessis# scored one try each. Nathan Hirayama booted three converts and one penalty goal for nine points.

With the victory, UVic finishes in fifth spot in league play at 5-4 and advances to the quarter-finals. They will play at James Bay (7-2, fourth place) on Saturday April 16 at 2:45 p.m. in the CDI Premier League quarter-final game.

Vikes head coach Doug Tate the thrilling game showed the depth of talent on the Burnaby roster.

"It came down to the last few minutes for the Vikes to secure the victory," Tate said. "It was a great seesaw battle with multiple lead changes and a very wide open game where Burnaby was up to the challenge and played a very physical game."

Tate said Vikes captain Riordan "led by example and really put in some big hits," but a few defensive lapses allowed Burnaby to get back into the game.

Burnaby Lake (3-5-1, sixth place) will face UBC Old Boys (7-2-0, fourth place) in the other CDI quarter-final game Saturday on the mainland, while Castaway Wanderers (8-1-0, first place) and Meraloma (7-1-1, second place) earned byes to the seminal round April 30. Bayside Sharks (3-6) and Abbotsford (2-7) finished in seventh and eighth place respectively and did not qualify from the post-season.