The second leg of the three-game Commander-in-Chief Trophy Friday night as Air Force visits Army at West Point.

The rugby game mirrors a football matchup between the two military academies, but the rugby game is a bigger faceoff. Army is ranked #5 among fall-active DI colleges by Goff Rugby Report, while Air Force is ranked #8. Both teams have beaten very strong opponents, but have lost, as well - Air Force lost to Colorado State, and Army lost to Penn State.

This past weekend, Air Force edged Colorado 24-17 behind tries from Braden Smith, Brady Miner, captain Mitch Cochell to remain in 1st in the West D1A.

“It was a good game to win,” said AFA Head Coach Denny Merideth. “We needed to play some really stout defense, and even though we’ve lost [captain and center] Ben Burmester, everyone has stepped up and everyone is going the right thing.”

The Zoomies had former USA scrumhalf Mose Timoteo come in for a couple of sessions, giving the players a new perspective on their play, and now they look ahead to this rivalry match.

“It matters a lot to the players,” said Merideth. “We expect the game to be really close and want to win the series. We know you should count your chickens.”

At West Point, the Black Knights are fully aware that Air Force can win the Commander-in-Chief Trophy with a win Friday, having beaten Navy 31-30 earlier in the fall. A win against Army will make them 2-0.

“Winning the Commander-in-Chief trophy is one of our primary goals this season,” said Army Head Coach Matt Sherman.”It’s hugely important to us.

We’re very excited to finish our fall competition against a fellow service academy and a very good Air Force Academy team. We’ve been able to execute at a high level in various facets of our play throughout this fall season, but we haven’t been able to put all of them together into one performance, or for two halves of a complete game.  I think if we can find that consistency in our performance, we can put ourselves in a position to earn a victory.”

Sherman said his team has been on an improving path, a sentiment echoed by Merideth at Air Force. 

“It remains the most important thing to us that we improve again this game, and I think that If we can find more consistency in playing at our highest level we can and will do that,” added Sherman. “If so, I think we will put ourselves in a position to compete for a victory.”

Army flyhalf Jon Kim was named D1A Player of the Month. The flyhalf has been a crucial part of the West Point effort because of his goalkicking and his work directing the attack. Relatively new to rugby, Kim has emerged as a nice surprise for the squad, but the Black Knights’ bread and butter is their forward pack. They will need to be accurate and physical against Air Force, which has a very dangerous and speedy backline that can punish turnovers.

Kickoff is 7pm Eastern Time.