Middle Tennessee State exacted some revenge against Kennesaw State Saturday, beating the Owls 40-14. In the first meeting between the two foes earlier this season, KSU won 27-15.

The Raiders led 14-7 at halftime, but exploded after intermission, outscoring Kennesaw 26-7 in the second half.

“We sort of hurt ourselves a little bit with some penalties and we were losing a little ball out of the breakdown,” said MTSU coach Jody Hensley of the first half.

“We weren’t getting our passes out so our momentum was getting stopped, and in the second half we sort of solidified it a little bit and was able to have a lot more ball and a lot more clean ball just to go with, so we were very fortunate. We had control of the scrum and we used that to our advantage.”

Delivering much of that clean ball was scrumhalf Austin Boggess.

“He created a lot of opportunity behind the defense --  a lot of good ball, a lot of go forward around the breakdown when we had possession,” said Hensley of Boggess. “He made a lot of good opportunities to attack wide open.”

MTSU, Kennesaw and Georgia Southern are all now in the mix for the two North bids to the South Independent Rugby Conference semifinals. With MTSU and Kennesaw 1-1 against each other and Georgia Southern 1-1 against them, there’s going to be a tight race in the second half of league play.

In the South, Central Florida just pulled itself back into the running for a playoff spot with a 32-14 defeat of South Florida. The Bulls beat the Golden Knights in their first meeting earlier this season.

With Florida State undefeated in league play so far, it seems as though point differential could be what sends UCF or USF to the playoffs and ends the other’s season.

Georgia Southern's scheduled match against Emory was postponed due to weather.