CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II team faced off with the University of South Carolina – Sumpter in the Invitational Series semifinals, pushing the top seeded Fire Ants to the brink before falling 3-2 in the best of five match.
"Our team played like never before and I'm just so proud of what they have achieved so far," Head Coach Cindy Benites said. "Making them sweat a little bit, making it go to a fifth round, they did an amazing job."
The Golden Eagles opened up Hardpoint with a strong start taking the first 26 points on the opening minute. The Fire Ants rallied to take their first lead on the third hard point but LCCC kept the back and forth going regaining the lead at 71-49. Both sides continued trading leads through the middle of the map with both teams even at 153 as every point became critical down the stretch as USCS just held off several charges from Laramie County.
The Golden Eagle reclaimed the lead at 219-218 in the final moments but a quick rotation by USC Sumpter gave them the opening game 250-229.
Isiaha Ahrens was on fire during the game with 39 kills to lead the team and all four picked up at least 23 kills each in a high scoring round as the game moved to Search and Destroy.
In round two, Andrew Santhuff was the lone survivor for the Golden Eagles but it was enough as they took the opening game in the first-to-six race. The momentum kept rolling as they built the streak of wins to four before the Fire Ants picked up their first win.
The match got closer with three straight wins for USCS but the Golden Eagles picked up a critical win to go up 5-3 and get three chances at match point but they didn't need any more chances as they closed out the round 6-3 to even the match at 1-1 and becoming the first team all season to take a round from the Fire Ants.
"Their communication and their chemistry was how they did it," Benites said. "You could see it throughout the entire game they were feeding off of each other."
It was Santhuff rolling through the Fire Ants with eight kills to three deaths and the entire team picked up at least six kills each.
Control was a critical round for both teams as the match turned into a best of three and the Golden Eagles opened the first game with a clean sweep of both A and B control points to go up 1-0. As they switched to defense, USC-Sumpter matched the success of LCCC to even the round at 1-1.
With just 13 seconds left in the third game the team came up clutch to get the Golden Eagles back in command with a 2-1 lead as they secured both control points again for a clean sweep of the attack and in their second chance on the attack. It came down to milliseconds in the fourth game but a clutch kill by Ahrens kept the Fire Ants from closing the point and after a minute of the best defense of the season, the Golden Eagles finished off the win to take control of the match with a 2-1 edge going into a second round of Hardpoint.
Ahrens was a man on fire again with 39 kills while Christopher Johnson had the fewest traded kills with 13 of his 19 kills being non-traded.
After a few changes to the strategies in the second round of Hardpoint, the team kept more control as the Fire Ants were on their back heels and LCCC was able to build the lead to 85-25 in the opening three hard points.
The lead grew to 107-25 before USCS was able to start climbing back into the match with their back against the wall and they trimmed it to 107-80 with four minutes remaining in the match. Laramie County picked the lead back to over 60 points on the next hard point and had a 150-95 but the Fire Ants closed it back and took their first lead at 167-166 and built the lead to 188-166 and the deficit would prove too much for LCCC to rally back from as they took the match 250-191 and forced the match to a final round of Search and Destroy.
Santhuff and Ahrens were the top attackers again with 53 kills between the pair in the round.
USC Sumpter took the opening five rounds of Search and Destroy in the winner-take-all round before the Golden Eagles picked up their opening win to try and get back into the match. The rallied back to 5-3 before the Fire Ants closed out the match and picked up the win in a classic match.
"Isiaha coming in and not knowing what the team dynamic was and taking a little bit of charge and Andy giving him that, going with the strategies Isiaha had in mind, it was critical in the wins," Benites said of the team's adjustment to a new face on the roster only a few days before the postseason began. "It was iffy going into it, but look at what the team achieved. This was the first time USC Sumpter dropped two maps this whole season so I think it's a testament to our whole team to get that done."
The Golden Eagles season ends with the loss to the number one overall seed in the Invitational Series bracket.