Captain Shilo Velasquez, 5th Special Forces Group, beats Spc. Robert Kiernan, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, to the ball, during the final game of the double-elimination soccer tournament Oct. 27 at Fryar Stadium, as Staff Sgt. Adrian Gu...
(FORT CAMPBELL, KY, Nov. 3, 2011)--Fort Campbell's double-elimination post soccer championship tournament brought together the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and 5th Special Forces Group for the final match up of the season. It took two games to determine the post champions, but in the end 160th SOAR came out on top.
"Fifth Group is a good team," said Sgt. 1st Class James Lange, 160th SOAR. "We play them on the weekends so we know they're the team to beat."
The match-up brought the Night Stalkers their first loss of the tournament Oct. 26 at Fryar Stadium. The 5th SFG team scored two goals in the first half and one more in the second, shutting out the 160th SOAR and winning the game, 3-0.
The win forced a second match up between the two teams for the championship title. They met at Fryar Stadium the following night -- Oct. 27 -- and didn't let the cold or the rain stop them from fighting hard for the title.
"On the field you're fine because you're keeping warm running," said Lange about the rain and cold. "But over here, you just stand here a few minutes and you get all knotted up."
After 5th SFG scored one goal during the first half, it looked like they would emerge the victor. The 160th SOAR, though, continued to fight hard and with less than five minutes left in the game Sgt. Jose Nieves scored tying the score at one goal apiece and forcing the game into penalty kicks.
"This was it," said Lange about the final game. "There was no second chance. Last night we had a second chance."
"We worked hard," said Nieves. "We were organized."
It took two rounds of penalty kicks to determine the final outcome. The 10 players from each team on the field at the end of the game were the ones to take the penalty kicks.
After the first five went from each team, the score was still all tied up. Each team had scored three penalty kicks and their goalies each blocked two shots.
The teams didn't have to go all the way through the second set of five penalty kicks to determine the winner. The Night Stalkers scored three penalty kicks and 5th SFG scored one, ending the game with a score of 2-1.
"It's nice to come out and hang out with people that you work with when you're not at work, to do something else," said Sgt. James Fulcomer, 160th SOAR. "We're happy we won."
"It was hard fought," said Lange. "It came down to penalty kicks. I swear we do this every other year. It came down to penalty kicks in the spring."
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