Shawnee State Rocket League played in the last open qualifier for Collegiate Rocket League fall season. The Bears had a great run for this one, making it all the way to the grand finals. They unfortunately fell to Fisher Friends, missing the qualifying spot by one match. They ended with a final record of 5-2.
Round one, the Bears played Fuel Rising where the squad made swift work to sweep them. The first game was a 3 - 2 win, then in game two they got the 4 - 0 shutout. Zach Ellis (gamertag: FireRaptor) had the most goals with 5.
Round two was against Purdue Gold. They dropped a game for the first time that day 2 - 3, going down 0-1 in the series. They bounced back in game two, winning 3 - 1, tying the series. The final game was tied at 1 - 1 until in the last 40 seconds when Ellis found the back of the net to score the series winning goal. Both the game and series ended 2 – 1 in favor of the Bears. Ellis once again had the most goals at 4. PJ Fiscus (gamertag: Fisci25) and Dyllan DeBruyne (gamertag: Duckworth) both had 3 assists.
Round three was against Rochester Institute of Technology Orange where they played a low-scoring, close series. Game one was a contest of passing and looking for opportunities, until 3:53 Ellis sends a pass to DeBruyne that scored the lone game winning goal. Game two Rochester got a kickoff goal then proceeded to prevent the Bears from scoring, causing SSU to fall 0 - 1. Game three, the Bears got their footing, winning 3 - 1. Ellis and DeBruyne both had 2 goals.
Round four was against eventual tournament winners Fisher Friends. The Bears had the upper hand in their first meeting. Taking game one 3 - 2, they started the match with their sights on the win. Showing their momentum-based playstyle, they kept pressuring their opponents to take a 2 - 1 win. The match concluded with a 2 – 1 game three win, sweeping them 3 - 0. DeBruyne had the most goals with 3.
Round five, the winner's bracket finals, was against VESPA. The Bears started strong, taking game one 2 - 1. They proceeded into game two, the highest scoring game of the day. It ended with the Bears winning 5 - 4, one win away from the grand finals. VESPA was not done yet, taking game three 1 – 2 to block the sweep. In the final game, the Bears closed out the match 2 - 1 and took the series 3 - 1. They secured their ticket to grand finals, with DeBruyne having the most goals again with 4.
The Grand Finals was against Fisher Friends, who the Bears swept earlier in the qualifier. They couldn't overcome Fisher's dominance and dropped the opening game 1 - 5. Game two was a little bit closer, but the Bears remained behind, falling 0-2. In game three, the Bears couldn't break their opponents' momentum and fell 1 - 3, which caused a bracket reset and gave the Bears one last opportunity to qualify.
In the last series of the day and coming from the tough sweep, the final games were a lot closer. Game one was only a 2 - 3 loss for Shawnee State. Moving into game two, the Bears still struggled to break into the momentum and once again fell 1 - 3. In game three, the Bears found an answer for the tough offense, stopping the double sweep and winning 1 - 0. Moving into the final game of the series, the Bears were out of gas as they lost in a 0 – 4 shutout. With this loss, they fail to qualify to CRL. Ellis had the most goals in grand finals with 3.
The hope to make CRL is not done for the Bears yet, as they can still qualify through NACE and the last chance qualifier later this fall.
Rocket League is back on Monday, October 16, with a NACE double header. Game times are 7:00 and 9:00.
