Columbia, MD – A hard fought battle saw the Howard CC Dragons Rocket League (3-1) team take down the mighty US Army Academy at West Point (2-2) in a 3-1 thriller during NECC conference play.
 
The Dragons scored first on a long clearance by Jeremy Hotchkiss (Columbia, MD/Long Reach) that was slammed into the digital net by Akaash Patel (/) to get Howard CC ahead. Patel assisted himself a minute later as he hit the ball off the back wall of Army and tapped it in off the rebound to double the Dragon lead before tapping in from close range again 20 seconds later to complete the hat trick. After the Black Knights got a goal back, Hotchkiss scored from a long range aerial to and Logan Ghandi (/) scored an empty net breakaway goal to seal the 5-1 game one win.
 
Game two saw Army get on the scoreboard with the first two goals, both coming from long range shots. Patel continued his hot scoring on a nice aerial assist from Hotchkiss to halve the West Point lead, then tied it up with a minute remaining as Ghandi hit a low shot into the corner of the net. Army nearly scored a last second winner, but Ghandi made an incredible save to send it into overtime. In the extra period, it was Patel's turn to make a dramatic save which set up Ghandi flipping the ball to himself and scoring from long range to put Howard ahead 2-0.
 
A physical battle in game three saw the two teams go scoreless for over two minutes until Army once again got on the scoreboard first. Howard came close to tie on multiple occasions before Army snuck another one past the stalwart Dragon defense as they shut out Howard 2-0 to pull a game back.
 
For a third straight game, West Point took the early lead despite another heroic save by Ghandi only to see the rebound put in. The Dragons fought back with sustained pressure which was rewarded when Hotchkiss boomed a shot in to tie it up. Hotchkiss scored the go ahead goal with just 12 seconds remaining only to see Army score the tying goal at the buzzer to send another game in the tight series to overtime. It took only 30 seconds in the extra time for Patel to finish what he started with a dazzling aerial goal to win the game and the series.
 
Earlier in the week, Howard CC took on Mitchell College in the META Invitational and easily swept them in a trio of 7-1 victories.