Prep School beats Fire Dept. 26-7, takes Intramural Football Championship

  • Published
  • By Dave Castilla
  • 10th Force Support Squadron
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  The U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School took their third Intramural Football Championship in four years here Oct. 17 when they defeated the 10th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department 26-7.

Fire Dept. struck first, with quarterback Dan Garcia engineering a pass-heavy scoring drive, culminating in an 18-yard touchdown to Sergio Galvan. Galvan caught the extra point, taking Fire Dept. to a 7-0 lead.

Prep School converted a midfield fourth down to keep the drive alive. Quarterback Austin Gouldsmith's two-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Nichols took the score to 7-6.
Fire Dept. needed a fourth-down conversion on their next possession, but Prep School's defense remained stout when Nate Dreslinski intercepted the ball and returned it to Fire Dept.'s 21-yard line. Prep School's Tommy Nicklas made the turnover pay off when he scored on a nine-yard pitch from Gouldsmith. This took Prep School's lead to 12-7 and ended the first half.

Prep School struck again in the second half with Gouldsmith reaching Nicklas midfield for a 22-yard gain to the six. Gouldsmith sprinted for the touchdown and later pitched the ball to Nicklas, who passed it to Justin Hammond for the extra point, giving Prep School a 19-7 lead.

Gouldsmith intercepted a Fire Dept. pass at the 25 yard line and lateralled to Dreslinski, who was stopped on the seven-yard line.

Prep School's Malcolm Williams caught a two-yard touchdown from Gouldsmith and Nicklas scored the extra point on a reverse, for a final score 26-7.

"We lost two close games to the medics during the regular season but we were confident we could right the ship for the tournament," Gouldsmith said.

Prep School finished the regular season in second place (8-2). Fire Dept. finished at third (6-4).