Danville, KY - Centre Esports saw its season end on Wednesday night as Rocket League fell 4-2 to North Alabama in the NECC Championship.
The Colonels fell 2-3, 1-2, 2-0, 2-1, 2-3, 3-4. Here's how it shook out:
This match was an exciting end to an incredible season. These two teams that were truly neck and neck. Both finished #1 in their halves of the conference and went into playoffs with undefeated 7-0 records and nearly identical game differentials. The result was a close series with exciting comebacks from both sides and total goal line of 12-13. Every round won by UNA came down to only a single goal, often in overtime. The full match can be watched here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2749052573
UNA found a two goal lead in the first half of game 1. Sush (
Grant Walker) and K2Winterpath (
Charles McGuin) found Centre a goal at the two-minute mark with some impressive speed. Then again, with 23 seconds left, Sush found another goal to tie the game thanks in part to ACKess (
Adam Kessinger) putting his car perfectly between UNA and the ball. With that, game 1 went into the first of 3 overtimes. After a 3-minute back and forth of great saves, UNA's sah finally sunk 1 in the top right corner to take game 1.
Game 2 began similarly with UNA finding a two-goal lead both off of extremely technical plays from sah. Once again with about two minutes left, Sush got the Colonels on the board--this time turning on a dime to fake out a UNA defender. Despite a few decent looking opportunities, no further goals were scored.
Game 3 started with strong defense. 3 minutes in, ACKess found a beautiful goal slamming the ball down right under the defender off a pass from Sush. This duo teamed up again with 50 seconds left to slip another one in the top left corner. Defense played a role too with the Colonels denying UNA's offense thanks to proactive saves and consistently getting to the ball faster in the air.
K2Winterpath found Centre's first goal of game 4 by punishing an empty net with high speed. Sush found Centre another scoring opportunity at 2:13 by stuffing the goal and putting both defenders in an awkward spot. Sah from UNA answered back as their teammates demoed two of Centre's cars in a scene our casters compared to Michael Bay's Tranformers 1 due to the extreme amount of car destruction. However, UNA could not find a second goal to force overtime and Centre tied the series 2-2.
Centre found themselves a lead in game 5 off of two great goals from ACKess. However, 2 unfortunate misreads allowed UNA to tie the score and force overtime which they won only seconds in. K2Winterpath showcased an incredible (and uncharacteristic for his playstyle) round on defense with 5 saves.
The Colonels started the final round with strong offense. After a few near misses, ACKess scored off a pass from Sush followed by another goal from Sush forcing UNA into an own-goal. UNA found 2 of their own to tie things up. For around 2 minutes, both teams traded shot attempts with nothing going in until, with 13 seconds left, sah gave UNA the lead. With the season on the line and almost no time left, Sush pulled out a miracle at the 6 second mark to force overtime and prolong the season. However, the luck ran out and Centre did not find the goal they needed in overtime to take things to game 7.
With that, the program's spring seasons have come to a close but not without recognition of the incredible work the teams put in this year. A PBC title in Valorant and NECC runner-up spot in Rocket League will do nothing but build big momentum into next year.
