Air Force defeats Santa Clara in home opener, 14-9

The No. 13 ranked Air Force Falcons hosted their first game of the year when they went up against No. 18 ranked Santa Clara Broncos on Sunday afternoon in a WWPA match. Air Force came out on top of this game by winning 14-9 behind the five-goal effort by Josh Stedman.

The Falcons offense was clicking early and often as they went up 2-0 within the first three minutes of the game, and took a 4-1 advantage which included a penalty shot by Stedman. Plus another goal was scored by senior captain Brad Rajchel as time expired.

The second quarter started off just like the first with Air Force scoring the first three goals to extend their lead over Santa Clara to 7-1 within the first two minutes, and at this point the game was turning into a blow out. The Falcons ended up scoring five goals in the second period and led 9-3 at the half.

The scoring continued into the second half with Air Force getting two of their three goals on man-advantage chances, and the Falcons had their largest lead of the game when they were up 14-5 in the fourth period.

With that nine-goal lead, Santa Clara made a furious comeback where they scored four unanswered goals as Air Force unloaded their bench over the last six minutes, so some backups could earn playing time. The final 14-9 score actually makes the game seem closer than it really was.

The win gives Air Force a 5-2 league record and also gives them four wins against top 20 opponents. Next up for Air Force is UC Davis on Saturday Oct. 13.