Film Room Focus: How Air Force Pulled the Upset

By: E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us

ATLANTA, GA-  In this installment of our Film Room Focus series we take a look at last season's biggest upset at the MCLA National Championships presented by New Balance.

Check our our previous installments here: St. Thomas, Liberty 

In a battle of birds of prey, the eleventh-seeded Air Force Falcons defeated the third-seeded Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks in what proved to be the biggest upset of the year in either division of the 2025 MCLA National Championships Presented by New Balance. To be clear, the Falcons were not your typical double-digit seed; they were at the top of the first three coaches polls of the season and never dropped below eighth, yet were still seeded eleventh. The Falcons made no secret of their displeasure with that seeding and promptly dispatched sixth-seeded University of California–San Diego, 17–4.

The Nighthawks entered the game looking to replicate the feat Concordia-Irvine pulled off in 2023 by winning the MCLA Championship in their final season before riding off into the sunset to NCAA varsity competition. Nazarene boasted a prolific offense lead by two-time Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League (PNCLL) Offensive Player of the Year Keaton Bean at attack and Loy Howard who entered the game with over 60 points from the midfield.  That offense alone would be enough to give most opponents nightmares.  Those nightmares became even more gruesome when fed consistent possession by Rayce Neill who won 83% of his faceoffs on the season.  As a result, Nazarene averaged 17 goals per game entering the tournament and defeated Rhode Island 17-7 in the opening round. 

So, how did the Falcons win this avian battle?

The game turned out to be the proverbial “game of runs,” with both teams stringing together consecutive goals at different moments throughout the game.  However, much like a long winding song with multiple different movements, the game had stretches with wildly different styles. 

The game started out in a way that the Nighthawks were very comfortable with.  On their opening possession, Howard took the first the dodge of the game and drew a slide before feeding Bean on the back pipe for a relatively easy finish.  Howard obviously drew the defense’s attention.  Caleb Johnson occupied the crease and curled high enough to pull Bean’s man out of position creating the passing lane to Bean on the back side.

The Falcons scored off the ensuing faceoff, but that was their high-water mark early, as the Nighthawks built a 4–1 lead with Beane adding another goal and an assist. Nazarene capped the run with an extra-man goal and a fast-break finish with 6:22 remaining in the first quarter.

Following an Air Force timeout, the Nighthawks won the faceoff, but the Falcons forced a turnover before Nazarene could get the ball into their offensive end.  Air Force, then began a trend of the next portion of the game.  The Falcons attacked the pressure that was Nazarene was applying by running right at the Nighthawk defenders, particularly the close defensemen and long-stick midfielders.  On the following clip the Nighthawks are trying to apply pressure and thus extending their defense far away from the goal and unable to provide support.  Sam Gee took the ball and initially did not appear to have any intention of going to the goal, but he felt the pressure and attacked it.  He got a pick to help give him a step, but was able to run all the way to the goal and score before the help defense could get to him.  

On the next possession Gee did almost the exact same thing and scored again with no support coming to help the Nighthawks defender. 

On the opening possession of the second quarter Mark Tang did the same thing attacking pressure against a long pole.  This time there were defenders in position to help, but Tang evaded the lunging help defender on his way to the goal.  

At this point, the Falcons held a 5–4 lead built largely on their ability to handle and exploit the Nighthawks’ pressure. The game was also becoming choppy on the Nazarene offensive end as a string of Air Force penalties gave the Nighthawks several extra-man opportunities. Normally, this is something coaches welcome, but for a team like Nazarene, with a dynamic offense and used to having a significant possession advantage, a series of EMOs can interrupt offensive rhythm and disrupt the flow of the settled attack.

Penalties accumulated on both sides, to the point where the second, third, and fourth quarters all began without faceoffs because one team had possession while a player was in the penalty box at the end of the prior quarter. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that happen in every possible quarter before.

In addition to the rhythm of the game being off due to the penalties, the Nighthawks also struggled to clear the ball for much of the game, but the issue was glaring in the second quarter.  At one point the Nighthawks failed three out of four clears and on the possession following the successful clear took one shot that missed cage and the Falcons won  possession as they were closer to the ball when it went out of bounds.  The clip below shows the third of these failed clears.  After the turnover, the Nighthawks commit an interference penalty that gives the Falcons an extra-man opportunity that they cashed in on  scoring their fifth straight goal to give them a 6-4 lead marking the second big run of the game. 

The Air Force defense got more comfortable in the second quarter and started to protect the middle of the field.  The following clip shows the Air Force defense show a slide from the crease with the backside defenders helping to cover the crease and also take away passing lanes to the backside leading to a tight window for the pass, which was mishandled and ended up being a turnover. 

Following a Northwest Nazarene timeout, Air Force coach Robert Koehler threw a wrinkle at the Nighthawks.  They shut off Loy Howard denying him the ball and forcing the Nazarene to play with their other five players.  The Nighthawks tried to initiate with a wing pick and the Falcons defenders switched aggressively on the pick and disrupted the pass to Bean behind the goal which then went out of bounds for a turnover. 

Reacting to the way that the Falcons had handled the pressure from their defense, the Nighthawks made an adjustment and settled into a zone defense.  This turned out to be a shrewd adjustment as what was working for the Falcons, playing in space and attacking with athleticism, would not work in quite the same way against the zone.   The zone also served to slow the game down after a frenetic start. The clip below shows the Nazarene zone defense helping to force the Falcons into a relatively low angle shot before taking the ball down the field and scoring on transition breaking a near quarter-long scoring drought. 

The goal however, did not alleviate the clearing woes.  In the clip below, the Nighthawks threw a long pass to the middle of the field that became a groundball.  Huck Patton grabs the ball and brings it into the offensive end before eventually attacking an approach and scoring.  

After halftime, the Falcons seemed to be more comfortable with the Nighthawks’ zone defense and began to attack with both inside looks and outside shooters.  On the following clip, the Falcons send the ball carrier behind after spending most of their possessions against the zone with all six players above the goal or close to it.  This pulls the Nazarene defense down toward the goal to cover the ball and the crease creating the skip lane and the space for Gabe Swanser to hammer the step down shot. 

Following the previous clip, Nazarene starts to extend to Swanser a little more, covering him twenty yards away from the goal.  Drawing the defense out creates the space and the lane for Swanser to throw this skip pass to Sam Gee for the inside finish.  

Solving and stretching the zone allowed Air Force to keep pace with the Nighthawks as they eventually got more possessions and were able to find their rhythm again offensively.  They continued to make Nazarene work to clear the ball and earn possessions.

The clip below shows a faceoff in the fourth quarter that Rayce Neill wins, but Air Force does not concede the possession and harasses the Nighthawks into a turnover.  This creates a faceoff win in the box score that does not turn into an offensive possession.  

The Falcons went man down with under a minute left in the game clinging to a one-goal lead.  Coach Koehler went back to the well and this time elected to shut off Howard, who had five goals to this point, while down a man and leaving his other four defenders to deal with the five other offensive players.  The plan worked as the Nighthawks got a relatively low angle shot with less than ten seconds remaining that goalie Eric Olsen was able to smother sealing the win for the Falcons and sending them on to their third straight trip to the semi-finals. 

So, how did the Falcons win? First, the weathered the storm early and attacked the Nazarene pressure.  Second, they disrupted the Nighhawks rhythm and took advantage of possessions gained from their ride. Third, they handled the Nighthawks zone defense which served to slow down the pace of the game.