Navy 1 - Air Force 0

We gathered in the Coaches room to go over the scouting report and pre game strategy. We discussed how we would match up against their dangerous players and how to try and maintain control of the game against a team that played a similar style to us. The rain had stopped and the sun was out but the field was still sopping wet. We ran through our usual warm up and made our way to the field for kick off. We matched up very evenly against them, with both teams content sharing the possession and allowing each other the defensive third to pass around in. Kyle pushed through their defense numerous times on the right wing causing one defender to fall down with a chop Christiano Ronaldo would be proud of.

About midway through the first half we won the ball in the midfield, Dunne floated in a perfectly weighted ball that did not skip too far behind the defense on the slick surface. Jesse ran on and neatly put the ball past the charging keeper. 1-0 Navy. We continued sharing possession until the referee called for half time.

We were able to push forward a little bit in the second half but ultimately fell on our heels for the remainder of the game. Air Force pushed their defense high and threw their outside backs forward as much as they could. We delayed their attack and pushed the pressure outside where it was absorbed by our outside backs, G, Bobby and Meier. Clint and Cook, who were playing sweeper and stopper cleaned up everything else. We were able to counter a few times as their pressure continued to mount, but we were not able to find the net. During one of our counter attacks Jesse was running onto a high through ball next to a defender and rolled his ankle. We stopped play and hoped he would be okay as we watched him helped off the field. We were not able to build much of an attack but were able to stave off theirs, tightly holding onto the 1-0 lead.

After the game we went our separate ways for dinner. Some went out to eat, some stayed in and cooked.  Jesse returned from the hospital with the diagnosis of a sprained ankle. A group of us joined him in his room to eat stew and lasagna while watched the world series.