On Monday, March 15, Balls of Fury defeated Gringos FC 4-0 to win the indoor seven-on-seven Intramural men’s soccer (sometimes called futsal) final at the Walton Lifetime Health Complex basketball court. The game was competitive at the start and had a large turnout of a little over 100 people watching from up on the track above the gym.
“I mean, it was electric. That was the most people I’ve ever seen watch an intermural game. I thought it was a pretty electric match. And the [Gringos] team played really well,” Balls of Fury defender Paxton Krug said.
Early in the first half of the match, Balls of Fury forward, Kiyoshi Tadano, scored to give his team a 1-0 lead, which would remain the score at halftime. For most of the remainder of the match, Balls of Fury chose to play defensively in an attempt to hold their lead by keeping their backline strong. Gringos had numerous solid chances to equalize the score but were unable to capitalize, including a shot from the front of the box that Gringos forward, Andrew Hedley, dragged just wide of the post.
Then, the defense broke for the Gringos, and Balls of Fury capitalized on the counterstrike scoring three back-breaking goals in the final few moments of the match to seal a 4-0 win. The final three goals were scored by Nathan Rostoni, Tadano and Negad Ezzat Mohamed respectively. Despite their earlier loss to Gringos, Balls of Fury was able to avenge their only defeat of the season.
“We had some new people on our team this year, and so we had never really played with them before, so we didn’t know what their play styles were like. So, the first game, we were still kind of trying to figure out how everybody was going to work together, but as we kept playing throughout the season, we figured it out by the time we had to face them again,” Krug said.
Gringos had a different perspective on what was the cause of their defeat.
“Honestly, I thought that they planned really well for us. We play really well against the press, and they scored early, and then sat back, and then hit us on the counter, and we struggled to kind of break down their block. I’d say they game planned pretty well,” Gringos FC goalkeeper and JBU junior Luke Dishman said.
Despite the intense competition and large crowd, when the dust settled, both teams displayed great respect for one another. Intramurals are beloved by students as they provide regular non-varsity athletes a chance to compete intense and exciting, but also somewhat silly (just see the team names), sports during college. Both Krug and Dishman reflected upon their seasons positively in this light.
“There’s a lot of good moments. I think honestly, just the best moment was just being able to be out there and just play with those guys. Guys on my team and guys on other teams, who I see in classes, and who I enjoy hanging out with,” Dishman said.
Next up for Intramurals is Co-ed volleyball (registration is now closed) followed up by the Men’s and Women’s Flag Football seasons. Registration opens April 7, and more details can be found here.
Photo courtesy of Ari Yam
