Teams from U.S. Army Human Resources Command and U.S. Army Recruiting Command faced off against each other at this year's Fort Knox intramural soccer championship held at the Kilianski Sports Complex Aug 15.
The fast paced game saw multiple shots on goal, but few found the back of the net.
A goal scored by HRC's John Westwood late in the second half and a penalty kick by USAREC's Daniel Padilla tied the game pushing it into overtime.
HRC would beat USAREC 5 to 4 in the shoot-off.
"We've faced them in the regular season when they beat us, and we were able to win today," said HRC Coach Alexander Wingate. "I guess that makes us rivals. They played tough and it might have gone either way."
USAREC Coach Jason Stubeda said HRC's precision ultimately won the day.
"Both teams played really well, we finished first overall, but HRC beat us at the championship," Stubeda said. "We've had some good matchups with them. We had outstanding keeper play; our keeper kept us in the game. In the end, they kicked some well-placed shots and we needed to put [our shots] in the corners better."
The teams have similar skill levels and both teams expect more of the same next year.
"These teams are closely matched and they're both defensive teams," said Tyler Phoutharan, goalie for HRC. "We had a strong defense, communicated better and tried to keep possession of the ball, but we still had [to defend] too many shots. We're glad for the saves, but we want to prevent their taking shots."
Stubeda said the team that excels at offense will be the team to beat at the next championship.
"We'll have to finish the opportunities that we have in front of the goal," he said. "Their keeper was outstanding tonight, and both teams are good at defense. We got to work on [taking the] shots we want to take."
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