Goooood evening everyone! It’s a new summer, a new League season, a new team, and another chance for me to pretend like my Captain’s Reports are a real news column! Last season you relied on the Insect Insider for your (mostly) up-to-date breaking League news, but this season we are merging, acquiring, and rebranding to become…drumroll please…the Green Thumb Gazette! The original name idea posited was the “The Color Wheel” (since this season the teams are basically just colors), but then realized that our material will exclusively cover games played by the Green team (which makes sense when you think about it). Far be it from me to claim that I am paying close attention to any other game except the one that I’m playing in. We wouldn’t be able to do the rest of the wheel justice. Although, by the time we’re done we’ll have played every other team…which I guess together would make a full color wheel…but I digress…
Well, with that intro out of the way, on to our second game! The Green team (official name currently at the focus group stage) charging into the season with a loss against Sky Blue last week was ready for a fresh game against Purple, led by the bold and daring Devon/Alex combo.
Green began as all great teams do, on defense going against the wind. The first half plodded along, mainly consisting of both teams trading offensive points, with a couple of breaks thrown in to spice things up. Despite much efforting and *synergy* from Green, Purple took half, making it 8-7. Green took the half to circle up, try out some new cheers, get super hyped, and take the second half by the horns. After tying it up at 8s, Green…well…instead of taking the bull by the horns, we got our own horns handed to us by the Purple D-lines, scoring only one point of the next six and going down 13-9. In dire straits, Green prepared to go all in…on having extra fun until the end of the game. But wait! A light shone forth! Green pulled together and went on a hair-raising, crowd-pleasing scoring spree! Taking advantage of a few Purple mistakes, as well as some stunning Ds, the Greens turned the momentum and made it a 14-14 universe point game!! However, we apparently used up all of our luck getting to universe, because after two missed catches from myself and Bailey (both thrown by the one and only Tommy Akin!!), Purple got some quick downfield movement and punched in the winning point.
Overall though, this was such a fun game, with such great energy and wild momentum changes across the board (one might have thought we were playing League finals from the pulse of the crowd). As a team, we had each and every player present show up on the stat sheet, whether an Assist, Score, or D (we had some turns of course, including yours truly, but hey sweep those under the metaphorical rug XD). Some plays that I particularly loved were a nice little break throw from Tommy to Jason (with a sweet little stutter step from Jason to get on his defender’s off side), Matthew with a great cut to space receive a continuation from myself for the point, and Ben Stone with huge hucks. Additional shoutouts to Caroline for some solid off-handling, and Reagan, Kay, Logan, and Hunter for holding the middle together in the face of the Purple Zone. And of course, Chris Bailey with not one but two huge defensive bid attempts (and dirt-caked arms to show for it).
For the Purples, there were an equal number of great stories to tell. Their handler game was a well-oiled machine with the triple threat of Brad, the Dustin half of Kadustin, and Ricardo. Of course, Ricardo never stayed in the handler space for long, culminating in an amazing one-handed catch (with only one foot in) from a Brad-pass that hugged the endzone sideline. In addition, Hannah and Aiden were holding down the middle with many amazing cuts and catches apiece. And finally, although out with an injury, Muhammad was present (in a purple shirt no less!) to keep the spirit and encouragement game strong for his team! What gravity Purple must have to have even their injured players cheering them on!
Anyway, well done Purple! A victory well-earned and well defended (though we were hungry for it!!). That it for this segment of the Green Thumb Gazette! See you in the next one!! (Perhaps the Green team will have picked a real name by then!)