General Douglas MacArthur once said, “Upon the fields of friendly strife are sewn the seeds that upon other fields, on other days, shall bear the fruits of victory.” Never was this more evident than on field #1 during Tuesdays match-up between NG and NC. Having been rained out last week, NG was fired up and ready to make its debut on the fields of friendly strife. Powered by a potent passing attack, and an even stronger defense, NG propelled itself to victory.
The tone of the game was set on the first play from scrimmage when NG quarterback, Evan McNamara hit fleet-footed Jason VandenAkker on a deep fly route for the games first score. The rest of the game was downhill for NC. NG added to its lead early on when John Pavelski, disregarding his personal safety, deftly executed a crossing pattern and made a fine catch in traffic for the games second score. After an interception, NG again found pay dirt when Ben Lowe made a nice sliding catch in the end zone only seconds before half. At this point NC seemed demoralized especially after NG’s Kristin Kendrick ran a sweep left and instead of running out of bounds, turned up field and ran over a member of NC’s defense, grinding for extra yards.
The second half was eerily reminiscent of the first. NG seemed to score at will, highlighted by great plays from Brian Lamb, Jack Speece, Asim Hussain and an inspirational performance by Darria Long. All in all, it was a solid team victory and a pointer of things to come for this highly powered team. Special thanks goes to NG’s #1 athletic supporter, Andrew Immerman, who inspired the team on the sidelines by reciting lines from the following days TOM case.
