[patrickrd]

We came in early today to prep the robots for our 11:30am game versus the FU Fighters of Germany. Before our game, the other semifinal match (Carnegie Mellon vs. RoboRoos) took place. The RoboRoos, who beat us in the first round robin, easily defeated Carnegie Mellon 10-0.

Our game was incredibly even matched and tense. The FU Fighters were very fast, and were able to keep up with our robots. Like our last game, we were called for two defenders in the goalbox and the FU Fighters had a penalty kick. Fortunately, they missed. Shortly after, we scored a very slick goal to take the advantage. The game went back and forth, but we never fell behind. 1-0. 1-1. 2-1. 2-2. 3-2. 3-3. 4-3. 4-4. Two of the four goals scored against us were on penalty kicks for two defenders in the goalbox, a problem that has plagued us all competition. At the end of regulation, the score was 4-4. Play continued with two 5-minute sudden-death overtime periods. The first overtime period went without a goal scored. In the second overtime period, however, one of our robots advanced up field, strafed around looking for a shot, found the shot, and nailed it in. Big Red advances to the finals

Game 7 (Semifinals):
Big Red 5, FU Fighters 4

We advance to the finals versus the RoboRoos at 3:30pm. Robots are prepped and ready. Hopefully, we have improved our system enough to win versus the RoboRoos since our loss over the weekend.

That's it for now. Check back later for the result of our championship match And search the news tomorrow for articles, we've got Reuters people following our team closely.