Intramural soccer, easily the most popular Campus Rec sport at N.C. State with over 100 teams, has narrowed down its numbers to four teams in each division.
Men’s open powerhouse Mother Earth took on I Bet We Win at 8 p.m. Last year, I Bet We Win, then called “Team Chinese,” won the men’s open championship, while Mother Earth was eliminated in the semifinals.
Greg Gosselin, a senior in business administration, said the teams have an exciting history.
“They beat us in the championship during my freshman and sophomore years,” Gosselin said. “They’re a good team, and we’ve always had a big rivalry with them.”
However, Gosselin’s team has a secret weapon in their line-up. Hugh Cronin, who played for N.C. State’s men’s soccer team for the last four years and captained the team during his senior year, joined up with I Bet We Win earlier in the season. Cronin now serves as an assistant coach for men’s soccer coach George Tarantini.
“It’s pretty cool to have an All-American on our team,” Gosselin said.
In Co-Rec, the No. 12 seeded Ballin Ballers took down No. 3 Team Blackout in a hotly contested match. The Ballin Ballers led 2-1 at halftime but allowed Team Blackout to score two goals and crawl back into the game. The Ballers scored twice late and won the game, 4-3.
Kristin Anderson, a sophomore in fashion and textile management, said she was proud of her team, whom she described as “the underdogs.”
“Our third season playoff game, we went to penalty kicks two times, and we finally won with one penalty kick,” Anderson said. “This is our fourth team in the tournament, and we’re only in the quarterfinals. We’re really proud to have made it this far.”
On the next field, Dream Team won, 2-1, over Alexander Futbol. Dream Team will take on the Ballin Ballers tomorrow at 9 p.m.
“We played well, and we had a lot of shots,” Eric Blumberg, a senior in electrical engineering. “A lot of our shots had some bounces that we’d rather take back, but we persevered and eventually our captain, Nick Solano, came out with the winning goal.”
Tomorrow night, the faculty and staff teams will start off with games at 6 p.m. at Miller Field. ATO and Sigma Chi Blue will battle for the rights to go to the fraternity finals, where they will meet the winner of the Sigma Phi Elipson and Kappa Sigma game. Pi Beta Phi and Zeta Tau Alpha will also be in action, as will Delta Gamma and Sigma Kappa, in the sorority quarterfinals.
