Beckley, W.Va. - The WVU Tech Rocket League team played their first competitive match in months Monday night after spending the fall semester idle as they dealt with roster turnover.
The Golden Bears esports lab once again echoed with the sounds of revving engines, soccer ball impacts and goal horns as team captain Fargo (Waleed Alghamdi, Soph.) lead teammates Tune_up (Levi Lesher, Sr.) and Ghosty (Elijah Harris, Fr.) against Sacred Heart University, kicking off their Spring campaign in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC)
Rocket League, created by Epic Games, is basically arcade style soccer played with rocket powered cars. In the ECAC format, teams play each other in five minute matches, three-versus-three. A best-of-seven game series is played to determine a match winner.
In game one, the Golden Bears mostly set about trying to build a chemistry amongst themselves as the trio entered the fire of competition for the first time together. The higher-ranked Pioneers would get the first three goals at 4:17, 3:28 and 2:01 remaining before the Golden Bears earned their first score of the match with a goal from Ghosty with 1:07 left. But that would be all for scoring, and the game would end with a 3-1 Sacred Heart win.
The nerves wore off and the Golden Bears began to find the initiative in game two, with FARGO getting the game's first score with 3:33 remaining. Tune_up would add a goal at 4:33 left to go up 2-0, but the Pioneers rumbled back to tie with goals 4:25 and 4:14 remaining. The Pioneer defense would clamp down as they added two more goals and took the game by a score of 4-2.
In game three, WVU Tech's defense shined, but so too did Sacred Heart's. WVU Tech's only regulation goal would come from Fargo with 3:30 left. The narrow 1-0 lead wouldn't hold, as Sacred Heart rallied to tie the match with just 57 seconds remaining and the game would go to overtime, where the Pioneers would get the game winner at +:18, taking it 2-1.
The Pioneers would continue to play solid defense in game four, holding WVU Tech to just one goal from Tune_up with 1:54 remaining. Sacred Heart would steadily pull away with goals at 4:54, 3:11, :10 and :06 remaining to seal a 4-1 game win and 4-0 match win.
The Golden Bear Rocket League team has a bye week next and returns to action again Wednesday, February 14 against Florida International University at 8 p.m. The action will be streamed live on Twitch (WVUTechGoldenBears).
