Oneonta Invite

Went up to Oneonta, NY with 6 players from the B team, plus DJ and alumnus PH.

Game 1 vs SUNY Binghamton started out well with us going up by at least 2 breaks. Then they started to play zone and we weren't practiced enough to work it up every time. Really, though, we kept it close and I think the only reason we weren't able to put it in the bag was our lack of depth on defense. We just didn't have as many athletic bodies or experienced players as we needed, and Binghamton had a few sweet handlers from Stuyvesant HS that worked the disc well enough to eventually find open guys with blade shots. They didn't have a very organized dump offense, but they looked to attack upfield in a way that our guys were unfamiliar with, so we got caught with our pants down from time to time. Game ended 10-13, not bad but I wanted it and thought we could have had it with one or two more A players.

Game 2 vs Lyndon State...a very, very young team that didn't really know what was going on. The just sort of let us take over, so we took half 8-0 (accidentally played an extra point before half) and won 13-1.

Game 3 vs Cooperstown, a mixed highschool pickup team. A hurricane descended on Oneonta, and both teams played huck-and-hope because the weather was the only real defense. I was deep-deep, and knocked down enough garbage to give us the chances on O, and we had enough patience to work it up that we scored without too much trouble. Our opponents were able to come down with a few big hammers and hucks, but I sent a few of my own shots deep in what we decided was our new "Gameplan: huck to DJ." It worked, everybody forgot what the score was, mutually agreed on pretending it was 8-4 us (skipped halftime) and we won 13-6.

The meaningless crossover round was cancelled due to torrential rain, so we all went back to our hotel and showered before eating at a down-home kitschy family-style place with a great Saturday pork loin special, ate way too much food and then took a nap. Watched some TV, ate some delicious pizza, watched more TV, some guys went to the tournament party, heard loud sex noises from the room above, eventually fell asleep.

Game 4 vs SUNY Oneonta was our quarters matchup because they switched the bracket around to play us. In the first half we lost DJ to injury and one of the B dudes had to go home early, so we were down to 7 against a team with more collective experience and more tall athletic dudes than we had. The wind picked up, too, giving me and PH some trouble, while drops and such from the B dudes made up the rest of our turnovers. I got some D's, PH got at least one, and we tried to make a comeback with wall defense but we didn't have enough to get it done. Lost 4-15.

Game 5 vs Manhattanville, which also had some players from Ramapo, started out with a lot of SOTG but almost no effort or focus from our side. They went up and we caught up, they played zone D and went up again, we started playing wall and caught up, and it became a battle at the cap. They were up 8-10 when the horn blew, we scored, 9-10 game to 12. We scored, they scored, we scored, universe point, we pull and we score so we win. I'm skipping over the details because it was mostly me getting a deep D, us working it up until we sent something deep and a new kid came down with it. I got kickblocked once but I got plenty of D's and assists to make up for it.

We bagged, but so did our final opponents so we tied for 5th. Seeded 6th, so we "upset" and came out with a winning record, so not bad all around. I dropped the disc maybe twice because of my cast, failed to lay out several times (because of my cast?) and missed a couple D's (definitely because of my cast), threw the disc away a couple times but got a lot of real D's (almost all on hucks) and threw a bunch of completed hucks and scores. Not great, and I certainly didn't work very hard--it was more like high school, where I handled and played every point but didn't get too tired because the competition wasn't great and I didn't play tight man D but rarely. I think I sat for fewer than 3 points all weekend.