A Colorado back battles through contact from San Diego State defenders during a playoff game on Friday. The Buffs pulled out the win, 22-17. (Matt Sisneros/CU Independent)

The University of Colorado men’s rugby team won a close game against San Diego State University on Saturday, 22-17, to advance and head into the second round of the playoffs.

The Buffs had to go a long way to secure the win. Although CU was never down, San Diego State was able to tie the score in the second half.

Colorado led the majority of the first half and senior wing Sean Kilfoyle, senior center Brian Wanless and senior lock Guido Murnig each scored trys.

At the half, the score was 17-12 with Colorado ahead. After 50 minutes, San Diego State ran it in to score an additional five points, but didn’t convert the two extra points.

CU senior flanker Charlie Barkmeier said a lot of their games this season had been close, so they were accustomed to playing under pressure.

“We were fighting them with the lead in the last 10 or 15 minutes, and it was comfortable, but they were coming at us hard and rucking at us hard,” Barkmeier said. “But this is something that we are used to, and the pressure we had earlier in the year really helped us out. We kept our composure, and we had confidence we could pull it out in the end.”

In the 57th minute, freshman wing Peter Heffillfinger scored a final goal to give the Buffs the lead and win the game.

With the Buffs playing such close games, Barkmeier said, “We have a few things to work on, but the good news is we have been improving a lot. This week, we need to work on running straight lines and just keep tackling hard.”

Colorado goes to Atlanta next weekend to continue their playoff run and play Life University, the No. 2 seed from Grand Rapids, Mich.

Contact CUIndependent Staff Writer Lisa Marcum at lisa.marcum@colorado.edu.