Ahhh, Tune-up. We go 6-2 and win the tournament. Very fun. Biggest tourney win since Easterns 03?
Anyway, my weekend started early Sat. morning. We decided to fly into Chicago on Saturday, it *was* going to be easier for us. We wake at 4, at the airport by 5. In the plane and the flight is going well. We get to OHare, take a lap in the air, and then learn that there is no one landing at OHare. So we have to go Milwaukee, refuel, and then take the 10 minute flight back to Ohare. Needless to say, I was late for the first game.
That game was against LCN. I forget the score 13-7, but it seemed like it was a fairly good game for us. Shaner had a huge d right as I got to the fields. That was fun to watch.
Next game was against a Dallas team. They had one guy with a big flick. 13-4ish? I do not remember much.
Last game of the first pool against central rival, machine. We go up early ~4-1. We converted very well and we forced some poor throws from them. Then something happens. The O struggles and the d only gets one more break the rest of the game. They win 9-10. We had one touch to take the lead in the 2nd half, but failed to convert. I thought their final goal might have been out the back, but no one else thought so. Not a great way to end the pool, but it basically does not matter since we are in a new pool and we are 0-0.
Well, we play another rival Truck first in the new pool. Well, we drop a pull on the first pull of the game. Ack. Does not get better from there. The O struggles again. The d only has one minor 2 point run (to go from 7-4 to 7-6). Not a very good game. Brendan did get a Callahan goal which was nice. But other then that it was a very uninspired game. I wish I could remember more, but I have blocked it out. I think a big problem was we as captains did not get our team moving/drilling before the game. Personally, I was very disappointed how we tried to villify Truck during the game. There were some close/questionable calls, but nothing that we have never seen before. We were not motivated to play and we tried to use Truck's close calls to motivate us. I have never been involved in any sporting event where that works. There was a small tongue lashing after the game. But with a loss of 8-13, that was a not so great way to start off the new pool.
Our last game was against Potomac. We do seem a little more intense to start. After a 2-2 start, we break twice then we trade goals and then another break by the d makes it 7-3. We figured out that is we did not let AJ throw 70 yards, they had trouble scoring. The O begin an unbelieveable string of playing beautifully. Scoring at will, only 1 or 2 tos. The D played around with some other ds in the 2nd half, but in the end we were able to win 12-7. Huge win, not only for confidence and momentum, but also b/c any 3-way tie with Truck + Potomac (if it occured) we would be sitting at a 0 point differential. We all felt much better at the end of this game.
So end of the day, 3-2, with a 1-1 record in our new pool. Unfortunately, I hear the news the fighting irish beat the wolverines 17-10. I thought this game was going to be a shootout. Somehow both teams acquired defenses over the last week. Hung out with grandparents and then went to eat and saw some big ass truckers and other michigan alums.
Sunday we wake up with Sack Lunch. Let's just say, we were pretty excited to play and they were not as excited. The final was something like 12-5 or 12-6 or something. Again, the o looked awesome. Lunch had trouble beating our z. Dikeman blocked the same hammer 3 times, which was entertaining to watch. I thought it would end up as a catch and not a d. Anyway, on the other fields Truck beats Potomac by a couple. Which means Truck was 1 in our pool and we were 2. We are in the semis.
In the other power pool, it was Chicago, D-wide, Goat, and Twisted Metal. On saturday, goat was 2-0 beating d-wide + chicago. Both d-wide + t. metal were 1-1. Chicago looked bad after they beat us, I guess they were spent. D-wide was ok, but only had like 16 guys and they started to look very tired on Saturday. Sunday morning, Chicago beats d-wide. Both teams are 1-2. And metal beats goat, so both of them are 2-1. Metal wins the pool and we get them in the semis (goat v. truck in the other).
The metal game was another spectacular game for the o. We win 13-9. They did not get broken again. Which was 3 consectuive games without a break. Something like 22-22. I have never seen that before. The d was opportunistic. Will + Jeff were pretty solid with the disc for them. But early in the game, they had 2 horrible throws on their goalline. One was a throw right to me, 2 throws later a goal. And the other bad throw was a floater on the centering pass. Shane *got up* for the t-bag and then throws the goal to me. 4-2 ish. We trade the rest of the half to 7-5. I do not think we generated a d during that time. In the 2nd half, we force them to play longer points and finally start to get ds. Although we do not convert 3 times in a row. Finally, at 12-9 Pbo skies for a d. RC almost kills Charlie, end result a turn. We get another d and then finally a goal from me to Shane. We win 13-9. Again, the O played well. The d needed to play better, but it was good to make them work so much. Eventually, we made them pay.
On the other fields, Truck was busy blowing an 8-4 lead. From 8-4 to 8-10. Ouch. So Goat wins 13-10 and it is an international final.
We have played Goat before beating them at Motown earlier in the year. But also a huge battle, very physical, at Easterns in 03. Let's just say it was not alway friendly.
We start on d and get 2 turns, which I promptly turn over twice. A forehand up the line to Dan which would have been a goal if I did not thorw it like crap. And then I slipped when Paco threw me a dump. Great stuff. They score. But again, the O was HUGE. This game they did were broken. But only once. 10-11 on the day, and ~32-33 over 4 games. Simply amazing. Eventually, the d gets going. We have 2 tiny runs to get it to 8-3. There was not a ton of huge ds, but a lot of pressures that resulted in bad throws. The highlight or lowlight was a contested stall yelling match. Shane had the disc and a stalled was called on him (after he threw a completed pass downfield). And the guy was positive he said ten. Shane thought he got it off in time. I felt it was a very fast count and Shane should contest it. Well this guy takes it as his personal mission to get Shane to change the call and gets a little too emotionally involved. Shane blows a kiss to him, which probably does not help things. Anyway, stall-contest after ~5 minutes (refs anyone?). Another stall contest on a completed pass (incidentally, Shane did throw this in less then 1 second, this was a retribution call). And then finally a turn. I am sure the fans loved it.
Anyway, 8-3 at half. The O continues to role in the second half. Both teams get one break in the second half. The O point that I play was the only O point which we were broken. Another small discussion with Shane + his good Canadian friend. They had a couple sweet layout grabs for scores. I was able to get a backhand, almost, 70 yards. That was exciting for me. In the end, we win. 15-10. Pretty sweet. Could be our best non-regionals tourney win.
The two major highlights were the O the last 4 games. Only 1 break against them. Sweet. Never have I seen that before.
And the pulls of Paco + Pbo pretty much gave us half the ds we got. They were great the whole weekend.
Personally, I think I had 5 turns all weekend. 2 in the finals game on the first point. I threw an up the line pass behind Seth in the Potomac game. Another throw behind Seth in the Chicago game. I feel like at least one more. If you can remember anymore, please let me know.
In case you were wondering, the fields were as dry and hard as ever. The shower hurt, but the hurt is a little better after a victory. The plane trip not as eventful, although we had to wait for a new break pressure gauge.
Anyway, my weekend started early Sat. morning. We decided to fly into Chicago on Saturday, it *was* going to be easier for us. We wake at 4, at the airport by 5. In the plane and the flight is going well. We get to OHare, take a lap in the air, and then learn that there is no one landing at OHare. So we have to go Milwaukee, refuel, and then take the 10 minute flight back to Ohare. Needless to say, I was late for the first game.
That game was against LCN. I forget the score 13-7, but it seemed like it was a fairly good game for us. Shaner had a huge d right as I got to the fields. That was fun to watch.
Next game was against a Dallas team. They had one guy with a big flick. 13-4ish? I do not remember much.
Last game of the first pool against central rival, machine. We go up early ~4-1. We converted very well and we forced some poor throws from them. Then something happens. The O struggles and the d only gets one more break the rest of the game. They win 9-10. We had one touch to take the lead in the 2nd half, but failed to convert. I thought their final goal might have been out the back, but no one else thought so. Not a great way to end the pool, but it basically does not matter since we are in a new pool and we are 0-0.
Well, we play another rival Truck first in the new pool. Well, we drop a pull on the first pull of the game. Ack. Does not get better from there. The O struggles again. The d only has one minor 2 point run (to go from 7-4 to 7-6). Not a very good game. Brendan did get a Callahan goal which was nice. But other then that it was a very uninspired game. I wish I could remember more, but I have blocked it out. I think a big problem was we as captains did not get our team moving/drilling before the game. Personally, I was very disappointed how we tried to villify Truck during the game. There were some close/questionable calls, but nothing that we have never seen before. We were not motivated to play and we tried to use Truck's close calls to motivate us. I have never been involved in any sporting event where that works. There was a small tongue lashing after the game. But with a loss of 8-13, that was a not so great way to start off the new pool.
Our last game was against Potomac. We do seem a little more intense to start. After a 2-2 start, we break twice then we trade goals and then another break by the d makes it 7-3. We figured out that is we did not let AJ throw 70 yards, they had trouble scoring. The O begin an unbelieveable string of playing beautifully. Scoring at will, only 1 or 2 tos. The D played around with some other ds in the 2nd half, but in the end we were able to win 12-7. Huge win, not only for confidence and momentum, but also b/c any 3-way tie with Truck + Potomac (if it occured) we would be sitting at a 0 point differential. We all felt much better at the end of this game.
So end of the day, 3-2, with a 1-1 record in our new pool. Unfortunately, I hear the news the fighting irish beat the wolverines 17-10. I thought this game was going to be a shootout. Somehow both teams acquired defenses over the last week. Hung out with grandparents and then went to eat and saw some big ass truckers and other michigan alums.
Sunday we wake up with Sack Lunch. Let's just say, we were pretty excited to play and they were not as excited. The final was something like 12-5 or 12-6 or something. Again, the o looked awesome. Lunch had trouble beating our z. Dikeman blocked the same hammer 3 times, which was entertaining to watch. I thought it would end up as a catch and not a d. Anyway, on the other fields Truck beats Potomac by a couple. Which means Truck was 1 in our pool and we were 2. We are in the semis.
In the other power pool, it was Chicago, D-wide, Goat, and Twisted Metal. On saturday, goat was 2-0 beating d-wide + chicago. Both d-wide + t. metal were 1-1. Chicago looked bad after they beat us, I guess they were spent. D-wide was ok, but only had like 16 guys and they started to look very tired on Saturday. Sunday morning, Chicago beats d-wide. Both teams are 1-2. And metal beats goat, so both of them are 2-1. Metal wins the pool and we get them in the semis (goat v. truck in the other).
The metal game was another spectacular game for the o. We win 13-9. They did not get broken again. Which was 3 consectuive games without a break. Something like 22-22. I have never seen that before. The d was opportunistic. Will + Jeff were pretty solid with the disc for them. But early in the game, they had 2 horrible throws on their goalline. One was a throw right to me, 2 throws later a goal. And the other bad throw was a floater on the centering pass. Shane *got up* for the t-bag and then throws the goal to me. 4-2 ish. We trade the rest of the half to 7-5. I do not think we generated a d during that time. In the 2nd half, we force them to play longer points and finally start to get ds. Although we do not convert 3 times in a row. Finally, at 12-9 Pbo skies for a d. RC almost kills Charlie, end result a turn. We get another d and then finally a goal from me to Shane. We win 13-9. Again, the O played well. The d needed to play better, but it was good to make them work so much. Eventually, we made them pay.
On the other fields, Truck was busy blowing an 8-4 lead. From 8-4 to 8-10. Ouch. So Goat wins 13-10 and it is an international final.
We have played Goat before beating them at Motown earlier in the year. But also a huge battle, very physical, at Easterns in 03. Let's just say it was not alway friendly.
We start on d and get 2 turns, which I promptly turn over twice. A forehand up the line to Dan which would have been a goal if I did not thorw it like crap. And then I slipped when Paco threw me a dump. Great stuff. They score. But again, the O was HUGE. This game they did were broken. But only once. 10-11 on the day, and ~32-33 over 4 games. Simply amazing. Eventually, the d gets going. We have 2 tiny runs to get it to 8-3. There was not a ton of huge ds, but a lot of pressures that resulted in bad throws. The highlight or lowlight was a contested stall yelling match. Shane had the disc and a stalled was called on him (after he threw a completed pass downfield). And the guy was positive he said ten. Shane thought he got it off in time. I felt it was a very fast count and Shane should contest it. Well this guy takes it as his personal mission to get Shane to change the call and gets a little too emotionally involved. Shane blows a kiss to him, which probably does not help things. Anyway, stall-contest after ~5 minutes (refs anyone?). Another stall contest on a completed pass (incidentally, Shane did throw this in less then 1 second, this was a retribution call). And then finally a turn. I am sure the fans loved it.
Anyway, 8-3 at half. The O continues to role in the second half. Both teams get one break in the second half. The O point that I play was the only O point which we were broken. Another small discussion with Shane + his good Canadian friend. They had a couple sweet layout grabs for scores. I was able to get a backhand, almost, 70 yards. That was exciting for me. In the end, we win. 15-10. Pretty sweet. Could be our best non-regionals tourney win.
The two major highlights were the O the last 4 games. Only 1 break against them. Sweet. Never have I seen that before.
And the pulls of Paco + Pbo pretty much gave us half the ds we got. They were great the whole weekend.
Personally, I think I had 5 turns all weekend. 2 in the finals game on the first point. I threw an up the line pass behind Seth in the Potomac game. Another throw behind Seth in the Chicago game. I feel like at least one more. If you can remember anymore, please let me know.
In case you were wondering, the fields were as dry and hard as ever. The shower hurt, but the hurt is a little better after a victory. The plane trip not as eventful, although we had to wait for a new break pressure gauge.
posted by sometallskinnykid at 8:38 AM
1 Comments:
Congratulations on the win! Finally, at least a little bit of CHC writeup. Sorry I wasn't able to make it out this year. 9 years for you, 11 years for me at that tournament. I mentioned over in my blog that you guys have had our number since the first victory in 2000, regardless of how our respective seasons were going.
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