The US Air Force Academy regained the Shea Cup after beating Navy 32-31 in a tense inter-service-academy clash.

Air Force led through a good portion of the game, finding gaps in the Navy backline defense. They did this despite seeing captain and center Ben Burmester go out with a nasty injury. Dalton Welch stepped in for Burmester and did a solid job at short notice.

Fullback Casey Rothstein had a bit of a breakout game, scoring two tries and making two try-saving tackles. The lacrosse crossover has been learning the game for the past year, and showed a big step forward in this game.

"He's really working on his defensive positioning," said Air Force Coach Denny Merideth.

Navy battled back with some tough forward work, doing a better job keeping the ball out of Air Force hands and working some good tries over the line. Late in the game, the two teams traded scored back and forth, and with time almost up, Navy pushed over the pile to score a try and make it 31-29. But Air Force had one more chance, and got a penalty which, despite the dffiicult angle, flanker Gregor Kerdikoshvili slotted for the win.

Kerdikoshvili also stepped in as captain when Burmester went off injured, and was his usual hard-working self, leading from the front and contributing a try, three conversions, and two penalties.

"The Navy guys were amazing," said Merideth. "They tackled hard, ran hard, and played hard. And after the game they were all class. But to win we had to play hard and tackle hard too, and we did."