Club Sectionals, Day 1

We show up to the fields and find that it is raining, and that Joe J. hasn’t washed his jersey since the last Mercer game, weeks ago. The rain stinks, but not quite as much as Joe. I could only rectify one of the issues, however, and that was by ripping holes in a trash bag and wearing it as a shirt. Once Pete arrives with the tournament food and whatnot, I proceed to make two fields: one perfect, the other mangled by the treeline of the adjacent forest. I fix another field, then get warmed up for our first game of the day. My warmup includes about 30 seconds of stretching and 3 minutes of throwing. It is windy and wet, but more windy than wet, and though I’m excited the team is a little anxious, myself included. I win the flip, and we start out on D against Shippensburg.

We go up 3 points immediately, getting the turn and converting without too much trouble. Then, we slip a little, trading and losing point until somehow they win half. I honestly don’t remember much about this game--or the others, for that matter, but especially this one. I know they started pulling down some of the bullshit, and stopped completing passes. Problems. We lose by a couple at cap.

Next, we move to play Philly Love, a team deeper and taller than ours, maybe more athletic as well. D Murf was playing for them, and we exchanged greetings. Before the game, we did a go-to drill at my request, because I felt we needed some focus. I know it helped me. The other team won the flip though, and we started out receiving with wind. The slap a zone O on us, and Ariel yells from the sideline to take a timeout. I refuse, of course, and then break through their cup. Maz and I, with the help of Dave, Jay, Ryan, Steve, and Joe J., work it up 50 yards, turn it over, get it back near our own goal line, then do the same thing at least four more times before finally punching it in for the point. I was extremely confident that we could shred their zone, and shred it we did. I then sat, fired up about shedding the stigma of the Rutgers Zone O. Of course, Philly then scored three in a row on us. The game wasn’t over, however: we scored twice, the scored, we scored, and it was tied at fours. They say it’s tied at fives, but I don’t remember trading another two points. We had found a decent groove, however, and were able to work it up through their zone despite some rushed throws from a veteran handler and some defensive mishaps from non-veterans. They score a “sixth” time (I think we turned it over on the goal line), cap goes on, they roll us for the last two. Mostly, I remember us playing a solid zone O. I definitely had a couple assists, and at least the first goal of the game.

We stay on the field to face UPenn Purple, and I win the flip again because I am amazing like that. I tell Ariel that we are starting on O, to his amused disagreement, but we score and score again. We might have traded the next two, but at some point Purple scores to ruin the planned D-line roll. I connected on some hucks during this game and did my job well on man offense, but did have some occasional trouble setting up for the dump properly. I threw some goals to make up for it, though, and sky-D’ed their primary handler (and captain?) in the endzone. Almost a callahan, but he had the inside position. I threw the goal right afterwards, though. In any case, somehow we get to 7-7, receiving for universe point. We work it right down the field, although one throw went over the intended receiver’s head and another teammate saved possession. We scored! Game: blouses.

Moving on, we took a short break and then played Old Sag, the top seed in our pool. They were in great shape, especially for a Masters team, and played a good mix of loose and tight zone D, often trapping, and various looks on offense. We got a lot of D’s, but never converted. We worked it all the way up the field through their zone over and over, but couldn’t get it in the endzone. There were some crazy bad miscues, and the Sag defenders behind the cup also got a couple amazing layout D’s. I layed out to save possession from a dump throw from Ariel, caught it, clapped it to my body as I hit the ground, and retained possession I THINK. It was definitely loose for a second, but I’m not sure it hit the ground during that time. My defender had called pick on me anyway, though, and even though he tried to take it back (he thought he didn’t have a play on the disc?) I sent it back to Ariel. Anyway, we played well, and fought them for every point, got plenty of D’s, but still lost 0-13. A shutout. I was very frustrated about this, but I felt that I played my part well, especially on offense. I am confident about tomorrow.