The WVU Tech Rocket League team began their fall postseason journey with a convincing but tight 4-0 win over the Shawnee State Bears Monday night.
The Golden Bears trio of THETREVDOG00 (Trevor James Morrison, Sr.), FARGO (Waleed Alghamdi, Fr.) and SpookyWarrior90 (Ethan Mcie, Fr.) found themselves in a close contest but kept their focus en route to four straight one-goal game wins.
Rocket League, created by Epic Games, is best described as arcade style soccer played with rocket powered cars. In the NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports) postseason format, teams play a best-of-seven game series of five minute matches to determine the winner.
FARGO got the Golden Bear scoring started with the match's opening marker with 3:10 left in game one. Shawnee State answered quickly with a goal from player K-Unit seven seconds later. SpookyWarrior would jump on a loose ball beyond mid-field and blast it into the net for what would be the game winner with 1:59 for a 2-1 decision.
In game two, SpookyWarrior buried a goal early with 4:06 remaining before Shawnee State player K-Unit again tied the game with a goal at 2:29 left. Both sides battled evenly until the final minute when SSU player Nuclearxx missed an attempt to clear the ball from their net area, and senior THETREVDOG was in perfect position to bury the game winning goal with :53 remaining. The Golden Bears would hang on for another slim 2-1 victory.
Shawnee State would engage in a shootout with WVU Tech in game three. More specifically, the Bears would engage in a shootout with FARGO. SSU player Lag scored the game's first goal with 4:08 left before FARGO responded with an equalizer at 3:39 left. Then the Bears' eventual game-leading scorer K-Unit scored another with 2:50 left. FARGO answered that at 2:18 and K-Unit again scored with 2:03 left, making it 3-2 Shawnee State. Undeterred, FARGO tied it with 1:44 left, but Shawnee State's Lag would score with :55 remaining to go up 4-3. FARGO however couldn't be stopped, tying the game late with a spectacular pass off the front wall to himself with just 15 seconds remaining, sending it to overtime. SpookyWarrior would step up with the game winner at +:32 to claim a 5-4 win for the Golden Bears.
Game four would be more of defensive struggle compared to the previous, and Shawnee State made a substitution, benching player Nuclearxx and putting in Wattboat. SpookyWarrior scored in the first 30 seconds at 4:31 remaining, then tacked on another with 2:11 left to go up 2-0. Shawnee State would get one from K-Unit with 1:59 left, giving the Bears a chance to get back into the series. But the Golden Bears defense would clamp down and secure a 2-1 game win, giving them a 4-0 match sweep.
WVU Tech now advances to the next round of the NACE StarLeague, Varsity Plus Division, East 10 Conference playoffs and will face Simpson College, team that defeated the Golden Bears earlier in the season on September 26th. They'll get their shot at revenge Monday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m.
Scoring Totals - THETREVDOG00: 1 Goal, 2 Assists, 3 Saves, 9 Shots. FARGO: 5 Goals, 5 Assists, 3 Saves, 15 Shots. SpookyWarrior90: 5 Goals, 1 Assist, 5 Saves, 16 Shots.
Original source can be found here.
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