Regionals: Sat and Sun Oct 6th and 7th

I was really nervous this week for regionals. An anxious nervous, but nerves were still there. If Pony and Goat were gonna beat us it would be through the air. BVH, Andy and Hassel are some of the most dynamic deeps on the east coast. The have teammates who can air it out and let these guys, all over 6’3” pull em down and these guys have the ability to catch a dinky 10 yarder and then bomb it 60 yards for the score. Last year on Metal we just stuck Will and Stout on them and they would not only be neutralized, but pretty much dominated. This year is different. Losing those guys along with Zip leaves us at a loss for playmakers. On top of that two of our best man defenders are injured, leaving us 4 healthy guys 6’2” and over. It was an exciting responsibility to have, but definitely got the butterflys going.

pre quarters: Dartmouth Pain Train
They didn’t have 7 until 30 minutes into the round. We assessed a couple while scrimmaging Boston v Boston and when their 4 others arrived, one in a dress and one with a red afro/perm, we got through it quickly 15-2.

bye

quarters: Red Tide
Our energy wasn’t into this one. We got a couple breaks early and a couple late, but we had a “do we have to?” type attitude about it. 15-8.

bye

semis: Pony
Back in August they got run out of Chesapeake holding their behinds, but it was hard to believe a team with this much talent was that mediocre. It seemed like they were missing a few this weekend; DQ and supposedly another handler. I’m not one for recaps cause I can never remember how games develop, but this is one of those games with a consistent theme, domination. From my biased perspective they kept turning it cause we brought the lumber again, again, and again. They would get tired of seeing their 1st, 2nd and 3rd options covered and then they would try to squeeze something in and we would d it. In an instant it was 13-3. We traded for the 15-5 win.

finals: Goat
They are like 81-5 this year or something ridiculous and undefeated since losing to Furious in Canadian nationals. People have been apt to point out that during the undefeated streak they beat only 3 or 4 teams that went to nationals last year. You cannot however, argue with their consistency against high 2nd tier teams like Sub and (2) Ring, and are we anything, but a high 2nd tier team? We know their game better than those teams, respect it, and had a good idea how to stop it.

Again my recap skills aren’t the greatest. They put on Andy and Hassel for the very first d point and there were two turns on each side before Goat scored the break. It seemed like their plan was backfiring after their 2nd turn, us 5 yards out of their endzone and their big boys sucking wind, but another Boston turn and Goat scores meaning the boys get to sit for a point now and gather their energy. Our D has an early chance and doesn’t connect, but the O holds down the fort and the d capitalizes a few points later to get it back to even. I think goat gets another break, but we fight back to 5’s and are on the cusp of another break after a huck to Teddy, but there is miscommunication and Goat capitalizes instantly with a huck for the score and then a break and another break. They take half 8-6.

Boston O gets pretty solid as the D claws their way back for a break, but the O gives up at least 2-3 more breaks as well leaving the score 10-13. Our O does the job and the D steps on the field. Im not sure how we got the first d, but I think Kolt aired it out for the score and on the next point they overthrow a huck to Hassel. Bang, bang. 13-13. They hold, we hold, double game point. I was among the spectators for this one, cheering my balls off and urging the d on. I think we had Giora, Seigs, Kolthammer, Forch, Kurt, Teddy and I forget the last guy. You all know the story by now. Couple throws and the huck goes up, a flick from the flick side to a guy cutting almost straight away. Forch saw the throw coming and came from weak side to poach. Forch is on a slight angle with his guy right on his heels and the intended receiver is coming from the weak side as he tracks the throw that is bringing him back to the middle of the field. About 10 yards from the back of the endzone they all meet for about three steps. Forch shields his laying out offender with his back and snags the disc just as the intended receiver makes his layout bid and they all come down in a heap on Forch. He gets up and walks towards the line to, I swear, a genuine slow clap from the 200+ in attendance. Forch calls a timeout. Everyone is riding high. Hitting each other. Joking, laughing. The disc gets tapped in and 5 throws later we throw into the biggest poach ever. Goat disc 10 yards out of our endzone and they call a timeout. A much different atmosphere to say the least. I thought I was gonna throw up. Disc in, three or four passes later the disc is near the flick sideline, the mark is flick and Ouchterlooney is open in the middle of the endzone. The throw is OI and trailing away from him. He lays out gets a finger on it, maybe a hand, and drops it when he hits the ground. Boston disc and we are on the move. 6 or 7 completions we are about 30 yards out and Giora gets the disc on the backhand sideline and sees Forch going deep. He nods/shrugs his shoulders and lets a screamer go down the sideline. From my perspective I immediately thought it was a goal, but quickly realized Forch was taking a steeper angle so it must be moving pretty fast. At the last second he lays out and snatches it inches from the ground for the win.

I feel like I played well. I had a silly turn in the Red Tide game where I came up gunning off an incut and put a disc out way, way to early. If I had set myself, waited 1 second and thrown the same throw it would have worked. Then when we were up in the Pony game Teddy was wide open, but cutting straight away and I floated one up to him that should have been a bit more bladey. I completed my only other deep throw for a score early in the finals. Although I didn’t catch any deep ones, my cutting was maybe a little above average. I made some deep cuts that opened up other stuff. Just tiring out whoever was covering me was a minor victory. Our % for turning blocks into scores was nearly 100% except for 2 against goat, which almost killed us.

On defense I got in for about every other man point all vs. BVH and Hassel. I would have loved to get some blocks on them both in and deep, but I had to settle for a couple good bids on incuts and not letting either score deep (Hassel got overthrown once deep when I was on him). Another interesting aspect of guarding these guys is that they are almost always the 3 in their pull play. I chose to go after this passively and let them get the 5 yard incut instead of busting my ass to get down there and maybe putting myself in a bad position to accept their cut.

My major accomplishment on both of them was that neither one threw deep on me. We played a very aggresive mark to nullify their big throws and I tried to force them to the sidelines so I wouldn't have to guard against both throws. Once there someone would verbally tell me where to go. I got a footblock on BVH and almost got one on Hassel that was called a foul and in retrospect might not have been.

feel like when you combine all those things they equal blocks and that theme ran deep among the d line this weekend. I can’t remember many spectacularly athletic defensive plays in the NY game or the goat game. We just brought it. We don’t play a help team defense, we play a gritty team defense where everyone is held responsible for containing their guy. The thrower looks up into a tough mark, and then sees hid downfield receiver covered, looks to the dump and sees him covered and then at stall 8 his bailout is also covered and he is forced to do something stupid. It is a very satisfying style of defense.