ECCfest - day 1

It was a long trip, but we have arrived back into the smokey Bitterroot a quick recap of the events:

Last workout on Wed.- 6x(150,100,50) 30 s between reps, 90 s between sets

Thursday, no workouts, packed up the car and headed to Spokane (slightly less than halfway to Seattle. It is funny to go to slightly big cities from our town of 4000. They seem huge.

Friday, finish up the drive to Seattle, we stayed in Seattle ~1 h south of the fields. Walked around the city a bit.

Saturday morning, we had arrainged for a babysitter to meet up with us at the fields. We were not able to get there until 8:30 am. 30 minutes before gametime, which left us ~10 minutes to warm up. And that showed.

Round 1 was against Mischief, they won last year. We receive, center to me. Now, I saw Kerr who had just receive the pull coming upfield wide open, my man was now on me. So I flip it back to him. Or more accurately, back behind him. Oops, disc on their goalline. 0-1. Hmmmm. They pull, something else strange happens, not with me this time, 0-2. And they had moved the disc like 10 yards total. Apparently, it is hard to complete a pass in coed.

Well, things improved after that, we would get the lead at 4-3. And then basically trade until half 8-7. I don't remember much about the half besides we lost one of our key receivers/pullers to a hamstring injury and I scored the goal to take it to half from Daph.

The 2nd half went much the same. Mainly trading points. I guarded Tyler a bit in the 2nd half. He has a very effective, very low release, deep backhand. He threw a big huck that started out under my leg as I tried to kick-block it. Impressive. The other thing they do is throw everything to him. A 3 possession sequence for them was a very big hammer to him (I thought I d'd this one, he thought I stripped it, it was close, no contest, goal), a big break mark backhand for a goal to him (again on me), and another big hammer to him, this time I d'd it fair and square !!! (I don't mean that in a bitter sense, the first one was very close). On that d, we were able to march it down and get the goal for the only break of the 2nd half. They had an excellent opportunity for a break, but a not great throw to an open receiver literally bounced off the top of the receiver's head and so no goal. We receive at 14-13, march up the field, call a timeout. Out of the timeout, my guy poaches, hammer to me, after that some sort of call, disc in, scoober, goal, 1-0 for the day. Alright!

Fun game and good game. I had no idea what to expect so it was good that we can be more than competitive. Bad news was we lost one of our main guys for this grueling tourney. That sounds like whining b/c I am sure everyone had someone got injured. I apologize.

Round 2- This game was against Horde. I guess there have been some pretty close games in the past between the flycoons and them, so the team was still pumped, especially after the win. BUT, we do something strange again on the first point, i believe the disc was just dropped 0-1.... Uh oh. We rebound and play fairly well, we were up 7-6. We pull to them, on the first d we get, I try to bomb it to Sky (now a slight wind and we are going upwind with the disc). Turnover - a theme of the weekend on my throws trying to gain more than 50 yards. We get another d, this time I turn it over with a hammer to Sky on the endzone. I learned nothing from the wind on my previous throw. Fast forward, Portland takes half 7-8. Great job me! Instead of up 8-6 going into half, we are now down one.

They start off the 2nd half strong, 7-10. After finally answering, we start to play zone and that gives us the momentum. Also, they touched a pull as it was coming down so we did get a very cheap and ez goal. I threw at least one push pass goal here, maybe 2. Fast forward, 14-11 us. We are 2-0! This mixed stuff is really easy...

Round 3- Brass Monkey. Much like the other first halfs, it is close. I believe we were up 8-7. Exhausting was setting in, so I don't remember much here, except it was like an 99/00 college all-star game out there.

I know they ran out of the second half fast, I believe they made it 8-10. This game was the windiest. It was upwind/downwind, but with a definite cross breeze to it. Back to the game, we were able to tie it up, but I do not think we ever had the disc with the chance to win the game. They win 13-14 and run up the field on the last point. Sorry the details are a little foggy for this one. We did lose Sky in this game as well. So 2 of our biggest deep threats were down.

Strange how I only remember the victories well.

Round 4- Slow White. Damn them and their first round bye. And for also crushing Portland in the previous round.

We stick with them for a bit, but they are up at half 4-8. And they score to make it 4-9. Here is where you feel it. This is where I start to think, time to drink up and rest for tomorrow, nothing can be done. BUT, we did respond. And that was a great feeling. A big reason for this has to go to 2 peeps, Pablo and Emily. They gave us a much needed emotional lift on the defensive and offensive end. I feel like Pablo forced a couple of bad throws. And Emily had a big grab and big d. In the end, it would not be enought, but we did bring it back 11-13 and I think we had the disc on the last point. I am not positive of that, but I feel like we did. In the end, we lost 11-14. I guess you always have to look at the brightside. 2-2 on the day. One loss at double game point. And another victory we could have given up, but we fought back. That was somewhat encouraging. I think no matter what, we would have taken 2-2 on this day. Moral victories don't count for much. But in August they mean more than in October!

On the brightside, James who was injured in the first game came back and played a couple of points. I was just happy it was not serious.


Ok, so that took a while, and I am tired now and I have to go to work tomorrow. So that is about it. I only saw a little open. Sub was up big on Chain, Chain comes back and maybe goes up by 1, but Sub comes back to win. I saw double game between Dog-sockeye. Fun stuff, I am not sure about green jerseys.

Showcase game, did not see much of. Nice big, long hammer from Wiggins. Chase-to-Jaegs deep huck. Hector forgetting he is not riding a bike. But yeah, did not catch a whole hell of a lot of this game. More soon.