It had been a miserable few weeks for the Horror Flicks. Joe and I had a horrible attendance through the month of October and we hadn’t been able to play with each other in over a month. This week, we were ready to rock n roll and for the first time we had a (almost) full squad. Now, everyone knows I love playing savage, but having these few subs would really make the difference over the span of the day. We had some tough matchups against the undefeated juggernauts of the Frisboos and the spooky David S. Huckins, which I still don’t understand (I’ll watch the skit soon Jeff I promise).
First game was against the Frisboos, who were slightly depleted missing both Luke and Carsten. We knew going into this we’d have a matchup advantage since their roster was super handler-heavy with Ben, TK, Tom Brown, and Lyle playing almost every point. I’d continue my dominance this season of winning the flip, starting on D and going downwind. We would start off with a slight deficit going down 3-1. This is when I thought the tides would turn and Joe threw me and absolute bomb with Jacob draped all over me. He ended up taking a scary fall (I hope you feel better Jacob), but this felt like a big shift in momentum. I was right, but it was a shift of momentum for the Frisboos. After this, we would continuously get broken until it was 5-2, leading to a timeout. Luckily, we had the one and only Will Byrd, passionate as ever, to give us the speech of a lifetime. I’ll save all the little details, but basically the summary was “If we catch the disc, we will win the game.” So that’s what we would focus on, since the drops were getting really rough. Next point, we’re on O, and we drop the pull and Frisboos take half 6-2. Once again, all there was to talk about at halftime was catching the disc. Barebones ultimate baby! So we’d come out of half on O and get an easy score, followed by 3 quick breaks to even the game at 6-6. I only remember a few of the highlights during this stretch because I might’ve blacked out from the excitement. Kay was an absolute beast on both ends of the field, getting multiple run-through D’s during this stretch that would lead to breaks. She was also out main cutter in the ho-stack, getting unders wherever she wanted on the field. Will would tie up the game with a big D, leading to a huck to Ellie, who would get an easy dump for the score for us to tie it up. After this, the game was very back-and-forth, leading to a highly anticipated universe point with us coming on O. Again, don’t remember what happened here as I was a bit of a husk, but someone threw me a huck which didn’t quite reach the end zone. I was panicking on the line, but ended up finding Joe at stall 8 for a nice open score to win the game 10-9. Some other notable performances from this game were Ellie, who was also doing a great job getting open unders. Our ladies carried us this game big time, with all 3 of them working it down the field multiple times. Evan was also cool & collected (mostly cool) against the zone, providing a reliable handler whenever we needed a reset. He also had a few assists on the day. Me and Joe love taking the down the undefeated teams, and this was definitely our most cohesive game yet, but the job wasn’t finished till we beat the Huckins boys.
Next game I would unfortunately lose the flip (strategically, of course), but I still got what I wanted, D going downwind. DSH was also missing a few key players, so I was feeling confident about this game. Maybe a bit too confident. Without the twin towers there, I knew me and Plant would be tough matchups for this team. But a few saucy hucks from Jeff and Drew would lead us to a 2-0 deficit. They were playing a zone, so all we had to do was be chilly and we could work it down. This game, I really blacked out for, because I can’t remember a single detail after the first few points. No clue who had the lead at half, but I don’t think it was us. I do remember Evan giving a beautiful halftime speech this time. Not about catching, but about not doing silly stuff. If we just worked it through the zone, we’d be fine. I think this was partly directed at me. I was feeling juiced up all day and may have been the main culprit in the silliness competition. But we’d eventually end up listening to the almighty wise Evan and win the game 11-9 with a classic Joe to Plant connection. So what changed? We went from a horrible team to a team that can compete with any of them. Number 1, obviously numbers. We play better when we can rest. Number 2, patience. It’s obvious we need our whole handling core there. Joe, Coach Oster, and Evan work really well together, and when one is out, the chemistry is all out of wack. Number 3, Frank. Give this girl the MVP now. She’s been injured all season, and came in today and made an absolute monster difference. Even though the stats only showed she got 2 assists, she is exactly what our team needed to be a contender. It’s no surprise that our team likes to huck, so having someone like Frank who has a variety of throws and can break the mark quite literally whenever she wants is invaluable. And number 4, team mascot Greta cheering us on. Everyone better watch out though because Larissa is making her return next week. I can’t confirm, but rumor has it her appendix regrew to full strength in a week.
So that’s it for the day. It was a really fun and well-spirited day against both teams and I’m glad we finally got a few wins. I wouldn’t be lying if I said I didn’t have a lot of hope for us before this week, but I am truly a believer now! There’s really no team we can’t beat when we’re at full strength, and this week really showed us that. 2 more weeks till playoffs, and we’re picking up steam at just the right point in the season. Barebones ultimate.