After a very good regular season with only one baffling loss, Royal came into the playoffs as the 1 seed against an understaffed Coral. We knew they would be missing G and Davis, while we’d be without Bhagya for the first time all season. I hoped several of our guys would step up in Bhagya’s absence and they didn’t let me down.
We came out on defense and as usual got a turn, but unlike every other week, we actually punched it in for the first break of the game. Coral had trouble with the rainy conditions and we would get another two breaks. Eventually, Coral just started to rely on the deep shot and despite our strategy being force under, they would connect with various deep threats like Sam and Trey. On the offensive side of things, we were much better this week than all season long. Nevin was unstoppable both in the under and the deep space. Without Bhagya, we needed someone to fill in the deep cutter space and Nevin did just that, catching several hucks from me for goals. After the initial three breaks, we would basically trade points to half, 8-4.
Not wanting the game to get to far out of hand, we would get broken the first point out of half. After getting back on track, we went zone for the first time all game in hopes of finding a way to stop the deep shots. Zone would get us several breaks, putting us comfortably in the lead. Coral would break back a couple of times, but our first half lead was too much, and we’d close it out, 15-10.
For Coral, Tom Brown had a great game, throwing most of their completed deep shots. Steven threw the same high release lefty backhand break for a goal several times.
Nevin had a great first half and would have had some serious stats if he didn’t pull a hammy on a deep cut. Clyde didn’t get any stats, but probably played his best game of the year, giving our offense a constant jolt of under cuts and quick disc movement. David broke his defender’s ankles making a break side cut for an easy hammer catch goal. As always, our ladies did a great job this week. We are still undefeated when our good luck charm, Maddie, is present and unfortunately for Brown and Red / Purple, she’s going to be in attendance next week. With Bhagya back, Michelle and I have got our sights set on sipping moldy, dirty beer out of that championship trophy.