Moody Tigers take fourth in the Blizzard Blast

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nicholas Benroth
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  First year coach Timothy Fry and the Moody Tigers headed to the Soccer Six Florida Blizzard Blast tournament in Kissimmee, Florida Jan. 8 and 9 to place fourth in the tournament going up against seven other teams in a two day event.

The tournament is one of Florida's largest six versus six tournaments in the state and offers multiple men's, women's, coed, and over 30 divisions. The tournament draws teams from all over the country to play at the hosted Austin Tindall fields just outside of Orlando.

"The tournament is based on a point system, each team receives six points for a win, one point for each goal up to three goals total and one point if the match was a shutout," said coach Fry. "With all the points we received in the tournament we fell just short of third."

The first game was against Lake Michigan College a team with solid footwork and strong camaraderie. Michigan pushed hard against the Tigers during the first half but the Tigers wore them down scoring two unanswered points to win the match 2-0.

"Our guys were anxious seeing as this match was their first of the tournament," said coach Fry. "We were able to keep our heads though and wear down the Michigan team, keeping the lead."

Moody was looking forward to their next match, ready to win and possibly seal their shot into the finals on the second day. Fortune shone on the Tigers though as the team they were supposed to face did not show up giving them the automatic win.

The rules of the tournament states that if a team does not show up then the team they face receives 10 points in total. This boosted the Tigers to 19 points but also gave the other teams in that bracket an advantage.

Their last match of the day was against the team in number one place in their bracket, a Russian team named Unbreakable.

The Tigers came into the match with their heads high after their first win hoping to repeat their win. The match started off with the fast paced Unbreakable's pushing on the tiger's defense but they were able to hold off pushing the play of the ball to unbreakable's side.

With any sport things can get heated between two players especially with a match as physical as soccer. During the match an altercation broke out between two players over a shove that occurred while on the field. Both players received a yellow card or warning for the argument.

Things continued to go downhill from there as Unbreakable continued to get physical with the Tigers creating an opening for them to come in and take the win 3-0.

Day two of the tournament began with the tigers facing off a team that tied and won one of their match's with a margin of 9-1 the day before.

The first match of the day for Moody was a battle for the ball going from one side to the other. Moody's goal keeper was able to keep the ball out of the net on multiple occasions forcing a sudden death.

Overtime rules kicked in and for every five minutes that neither team scored a player from both team would be removed until only the goalie and one attacker remained.

The match made it down to two versus two, two players and the goalie on both sides with the score 0-0 both teams sending shots towards the goal sailing to no avail.

By this time the whole field turned their attention to the match waiting for the outcome. It came down to a single shot on the goal made by one of the other team members slipping right underneath of the Tigers goal keeper. This snatched the chances of Moody moving into the championship ending their tournament dreams.

It was a very well played game we did everything we could to win but in the end we couldn't finish," said Daniel Fischer. "Considering this is our first six versus six tournaments I think we did pretty well, we are looking forward to some upcoming tournaments and competing in the defenders bowl this year."