The 56th Component Maintenance Squadron team and the Army and Air Force Exchange Services team stepped onto the field Nov. 2 for an intramural football playoff match at Luke Air Force Base. CMS defeated AAFES 32-12.
This was the second meeting of the teams. The last time they played, AAFES defeated CMS with a last-second touchdown to end the game. This time around, CMS was looking for revenge as they tried to eliminate AAFES from the playoffs.
The game began with CMS scoring the first touchdown after a long drive, bringing the score to 7-0 with seven minutes left in the first half. AAFES wasn’t going down without a fight as they also scored, bringing the score to 6-7 with four minutes left. Both teams had amazing energy with no signs of slowing down. At the end of the first half, CMS was leading 19-6.
CMS was determined to win and move one step closer to the championship.
“Defense wins games,” said Savier Hernandez-Beltre, 56th CMS. “Our offense has been amazing the first half, but we need to step up our defense. If we make the right stops, the game is ours. ”
The second half of the game proved to be a show-off game for CMS as they were the first to score only minutes into the half bringing the score to 25-6. AAFES was playing heavy defense, but it wasn’t enough to stop CMS from gaining positive yards throughout the game. CMS made the game hard for AAFES to come back, but they still had some plays in them and managed to score with seven minutes left in the game, bringing the score to 25-12. AAFES gave it all they had, but it wasn’t enough as CMS scored again, bringing the game to a close at 32-12.
“We could’ve done a lot better on defense,” said Chris Hamilton, AAFES wide receiver. “Our zone and man defense wasn’t working well. We’ll be back next year.”