We knew today was going to be a goofy day without our fearless and handsome leader Joe there. In addition to Joe and Ellie being out, we had no ladies able to attend, so we knew we were going to be playing a lot of zone with not a lot of people on the field. Surely, this would mean bad news for us, but we were ready to upset some teams and for everyone who saw, Handler Billy returned to the field after retiring years ago after frisbee massacre of 2018.
The first game was as silly as a league game gets. We only had 5 guys at 2:00 and our first game was against the Bestest of Friends, who only 3 guys and 3 girls. Obviously, it doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out these aren’t the best frisbee numbers. After a short meeting with both teams, everyone agreed that it would be fair for us to play 5v6 with all their female-matching players. Big thanks to Nathan and Chris for letting us play everyone and not forcing us to play a 3v6 with no ladies there. A common trend for the Horror Flicks is starting with a break, and then slowly losing that lead, and this game was no different. We obviously ran a zone and Best Friends made a mistake, which we capitalized on with none other than a Plant score. Will Byrd would slowly show up after a few points, but to keep the game fun and competitive for the BF ladies, both teams agreed we would continue to play 5v6. But at least we got a sub! We ended up being down 4-6 at half, coming out on O knowing a comeback was imminent. Some highlights from the first half include a huge D in the end zone from Coach Oster in which he got the tip of his fingers on the disc. We would start out with on O, get a hold and then a break to even the score at 6-6. Some back and forth points led us to 8-7 Best Friends at 3:12pm. We were looking gassed and needing a timeout, but I knew we would have to start the point before hardcap. Sure enough, we execute the plan perfectly, get the D, and call a TO right at 3:15. All we had to do was punch in this point and get a break on Universe. Welllllll, that’s not exactly what happened. We would move it slightly up the field, throw a bad dump, and lose the game 9-7. Some other highlights from this game include a hammer sky by Plant on Nathan, thrown by none other than me. Thanks for bailing me out on a not-so-smart and not-so-good hammer. But I said I’d throw hammers, so I had no other choice. Plant would continue his scoring clinic with 4 out of 7 of our scores this game, and Oster was the dealer on many of these, rallying 3 assists this game. Howard also was an important part of our offense, getting the disc whenever the stall was high and bailing us out of tricky situations. Really, really fun game despite the numbers. I know some teams in the league would likely have made us play 3v6, so I appreciate Nathan and Chris being so goshdarn nice about it and letting us make it a fun, but also competitive game.
Next game would be against Pop Quiz. As I saw them strolling on to Field 2, I knew we were in trouble because there were a lot of them. It looked like 2 teams of Horror Flicks rolling in. They had 3 ladies there, so we would have to 6-1 (really 6-0) in our Gen Zone and they would play 5-2 in their gen zone. Even playing this much down, this is a team with experienced handlers and I knew they would not make a lot of mistakes. As expected, we took a small, but respectable beating from Pop Quiz. We tried every combination of zone imaginable to try to stop the throws, but it just wasn’t working. I thought we maybe had a chance in the first half after Jared threw a 40-yard hammer right to me, but that would be the last of their mistakes. In fact, I think this hammer ignited Jared because after that, he continuously threw hammers against our zone, probably scoring 4 or 5 times with hammers. I like to think I can cover the area of 2 people in the deep space, but I must say, Jared humbled me with these hammers, each one being in a spot where it was impossible for me to D. We would end up losing the game 11-4, but doing our best in the process. The main highlight from this game included a big book-ends from Plant, who got a hand block and then got a dime deep shot from Paul, who quickly picked up the disc and ripped a backhand to him. I also really liked our “Dingo” playcall, which was literally just Oster getting the disc, me and Plant running deep, and hoping we come up with the score on a huck. We did this after a few PQ breaks, and to our surprise, Coach did what he does best, threw a dime, which I casually skied for the score. Maybe we should’ve just ripped deep all game, but the wind was not easy. Will also played an important role this game despite not getting any stats. He was able to allow me to cut and get out of the handler space, which is obviously not my preferred position even with the silly hammers and scoobers I threw today. But MVP of the day was Larissa for showing up and taking stats. We SOOO appreciate the support, even if she couldn’t play. And team pup Greta, who is the cutest and sweetest mascot in the league.
So that’s about it. We are getting ripped apart this season by attendance issues and we can’t catch a break with injuries. Soon enough, everyone will be healthy and maybe we can get more than 10 people at a game, and I pity the poor fools who will have to play us at full strength. It definitely feels like we’re counted out this season, but we’re about to make league history with the greatest playoff performance anyone has ever seen. We’re working on getting all of our drops out of our system during the regular season and we’ll be ready to do some damage in playoffs. I’ll be out next week, so if anyone sees Joe crying on the sideline, he misses me and needs a hug. That’s it for the Horror Flicks. Bye!