The four-team meeting of Life, Clemson, Air Force, and Navy finished off Sunday with Air Force and Life coming away victors.

Life defeated Navy, but of note in this game was how close it was. The Running Eagles have been beating their opponents by huge scores of late, but against the Midshipmen took a slim 25-19 lead into the final minutes before taking a penalty goal to finish the game off 28-19.

Life Head Coach Scott Lawrence said Navy challenged his team with solid defense and a physical approach. The Running Eagles were on the wrong end of the turnover battle, giving up six more than they took, and also on the wrong end in terms of discipline, as they played about 60 minutes of the game down 14 men due to a red card.

But Navy Head Coach Mike Flanagan was rightfully pleased with his squad’s performance over the weekend, which included a win over Clemson. 

“We would like to win, of course, but we got a lot out of this weekend,” said Flanagan, who got a big game from loose forwards Kevin Kirchmer and Nick Marmureanu. 

“I think this showed that we’re right there competitively, and we can build from this,” said Flanagan.

Navy plays an independent schedule and will look to the Varsity Cup as their postseason. Meanwhile, Life is now 4-0 in varsity games since the beginning of the year, and once again is a contender for the DIA title.

Meanwhile, Air Force finished the weekend 1-1 with a 37-13 defeat of Clemson. Clemson took an early lead but Air Force eventually tied it up, and the score was 8-8 at halftime. But Air Force handled the cold weather better and finished strong, scoring two quick tries in the second half to build a 14-point cushion, and the Zoomies cruised from there.

Head Coach Denny Meredith was very pleased with the team's effort. 

"We have been emphasizing the basics - intensity and ball control," said Meredith. "We didn't do that against Life, but we did against Clemson."

The two quick tries in the second half were key, agreed the coach, who got big games, as usual, from inside center Ben Burmester and Grigor Kerdikoshvili.

"This was our first real run-out this year, and we feel good about it," said Meredith. "And the best thing is, we learned a lot and came out relatively injury-free."