11/1/21

SCRANTON, Pa. -- The Lackawanna College Esports Rocket League team picked up a pair of wins on Monday night in NACE and NJCAAE action. 

Match #1: Lackawanna College 3-0 (2-1, 4-3, 2-1) Widener University
The Falcons opened the evening against Widener University in their final NACE match of the fall season. Game 1 saw Lackawanna College with some solid communication and defensive rotation, and while Widener was not letting up on defense at all, the Falcons were able to connect on a pair of nice passing sequences that led to goals, giving Lackawanna College a 2-1 Game 1 victory.

The first game was indicative of how the rest of the match would go, with close scores (4-3, 2-1) in the other two games. During the match, Widener had a combined 22 saves, while the Falcons put a total of 31 shots. The Lackawanna College defense came up big, with 14 saves throughout the match. Caden Delaney (Gamertag: bozi) finished with four goals, while Juan Garcia (Gamertag: Jaepster) finished with three goals, and Keenan Lewis (Gamertag: Fesbot) finished with one goal. It was a great finish to an otherwise rugged, tough season in NACE competition for the Falcons.

Match #2: Lackawanna College 3-2 (6-2, 1-2, 2-3, 2-1, 3-1) Barton Community College

 
The second match of the night was an instant classic between Lackawanan College and Barton Community College in NJCAAE action. The first game of the match would prove to be an abberation, when compared to the rest of the match, but it was positive for Lackawanna College. The Falcons used an offensive onslaught, with each player recording two goals apiece, and only surrendering two goals to Barton, to win 6-2. 

After a substitution for Barton, the Cougars would find their way back into the match, winning a tight game two with a 2-1 score, and coming back from down 2-1 to win game three, 3-2. The Falcon defense was a bit out of sync in games two and three, and the Barton offense bounced back nicely to give the Cougars a 2-1 match lead.

Game four was the turning point for the match itself. Both teams were locked in a scoreless deadlock with 1:30 to play, when Delaney, sensing Lackawanna's desperation, beat three defenders to launch a long shot from the left side that found its way into the net, giving Lackawanna College a 1-0 lead. The Falcons defended their lead desperately, but when two players collided and lost possesion in their own zone, Barton pounced on the mistake and made it 1-1 with 0:17 seconds to play. From there, Delaney had a few saves to keep things level as the fourth game went to golden goal overtime. During the extra frame, the Falcons had a chance to end it when a Lewis shot rattled the frame of the goal and tickled the goal line, but a clearance off the line kept it level. That wouldn't last, however, as Delaney gathered the long clearance and made a beautiful, acrobatic aerial goal from the right side of the pitch to the upper left corner of the net, giving the Falcons the 2-1 win in game four, and evening the match at 2-2. 

In the decisive game five, things were tight once again. After a Delaney goal had given Lackawanna the lead, Barton responded and tied things up at 1-1 with 1:47 remaining. Some desperate defending from both sides kept the drama high, but the Barton pressure up the field proved to be their undoing, as the Falcons had a Delaney save deflect down to Lewis, who won the battle for the loose ball with a Cougar defender too high up the pitch and launched a shot from his own defensive zone that scooted into the goal before a defender could get back, making it 2-1 Lackawanna College with 0:42 seconds to go. Delaney would seal the win just 16 seconds later, when he pounced on a deflected pass and launched it past a Barton defender to make it 3-1. The Falcons would defend out the last 26 seconds and escape with a wild 3-2 win for the match.
 
The Falcons' Rocket League squad moves to (5-1) in the NJCAAE Fall season and has two more matches in the regular season before playoffs. Lackawanna College will have to win both of these matches in order to secure their slot in the 2021 NJCAAE Fall Playoffs. The Rocket League squad will be back in action and on-stream on Monday, 11/8 at 8 PM EDT versus the St. Clair Skippers. Be sure to tune into our Twitch channel to support the boys at twitch.tv/lackawannaedu.