05 September 2009

Post Chico

Drove up with Ringer, Fawkes, and Evan Friday afternoon. Stayed at OJ's brother's place.
Our first game against SCUC was our worst performance of the weekend (6-13 loss). Their team was made up of mostly UCSC and Stanford kiddies (plus Joaq and Shy from Claremont.) Lots of speed on that team.
Next we had some chump team from Sacramento (?). I don't remember much of anything from this game other than we won by a lot (13-5)
Our 3rd game of the day pitted us against Strike-Slip (the 'other' LA team.) They had just dropped a shocker to Santa Cruz (9-13) so I went in to this game thinking that they were going to make a statement in our game. We also wanted to make a statement of our own in this game. Ed told us at the beginning of the game to not worry about who was on the other side of the field, but rather to play within ourselves. If we played our own best game we would have a chance to take down SS. We went up a break early after Bogo got a layout poach D off of Dot's in cut (I was marking Dot.) I then busted for the uncontested score. That got us fired up really fast. Stig and Jake both played really well this game (I think Jake had 5 scores, while Stig had 2.) Stig also got a huge layout D on Jer-Bear that Jerry called an iffy foul on (both teams called BS.) Anyways. We had the disc on the goal line at 10-8 (SS up.) Ed threw the quick forehand to Jake to hit 10-9, but it got called back because one of our own guys called foul as Ed was releasing (because it was called as Ed was in the act of throwing, it should have remained with Jake as a score, but oh well.) So it went back and we ended up punching it in JUST after the hard cap sounded. So we lost 10-9. I don't think anyone on either team could have predicted such a close game, and I'm itching for another chance to play them. Strike-Slip definitely has a stronger team on paper, but we proved in that game that its still possible to beat them. Something I noticed about SS was how disciplined their offense was. They don't really have any superstar players that can single-handedly take over a game (maybe BOFA), so a complete buy in to a solid offensive plan is the only way they have a chance to make the big show. I have a lot of friends on that team and I'd love to see them make it.
So. Really close loss against a good team.
Our last game of the day was a (pointless) crossover. Pointless in the outcome of the tournament, but that early in the season every game helps give experience.
Ed gave us a big speech right before this game saying how we need to stay serious and play as well as we did in the SS game. Then first point he goes and drops the pull. Good going. We won 13-2. They didn't have much of anything going for them. I only really remember Ed dropping the pull and then another play where Ed yelled that he didn't have a mark so I busted and sat on some guy's shoulder for the score. Was pretty impressive from what I heard. It's about time I started actually jumping. I also blew out my cleats in this game in a way that I've never seen before. The outer seam tore 5". Came out of nowhere. I ended up taping it up for the rest of that game, but that wouldn't work permanently. (I ended up borrowing Allen's gold soccer cleats for Sunday.)
After our games were done for the day a few of us decided to stick around to watch LAMEtro play. We watched the beginning of their game against Classy, and then promptly left after they had multiple one throw turnovers. Disappointing. We watched a little of the BCBC-BAG game then went to get some lunch/beer. Came back to heckle Metro and watched them lose a nail biter to the Brass Monkey revival team. Keegan called a timeout on the goal line on universe (?) when they didn't have any timeouts (sad).
That night we didn't do much of anything. I opted not to go to the party. Ended up crashing pretty early. We got to the fields early the next morning expecting to play the 2nd SD team (Seduction) when instead the TDs inform us they are cancelling the last pool play game because a few people they talked to were playing Open and Mixed. Kind of sucks for those of us only playing Open, but oh well. We took the 3 seed out of our pool and played the Buddies (Davis team) in the B bracket semis. They only had 10 guys I think, but the people they had were solid. Taylor is a beast. And Pumba's little (6'5"?) brother is damn solid for being as young as he is. We ended up winning on universe after a tiring game.
Our last game was against Army of Darkness from Oregon/Humboldt. They had an ex-Voodoo guy that was just dominating, but the rest of their team wasnt all that solid. We were up 10-7 when soft cap went on. They ended up winning on universe after Keegan turfed the first throw after the pull. But that was hardly our problem. We gave them that game. People were tired. Oh well.
We had all varieties of games over the weekend from blowout losses (SCUC) to blowout wins (Sacramento and Pirate Bay) to a universe point win and loss. Plus a solid performance against Strike Slip.
All in all a pretty good weekend.

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