For the first time this season, we had less than stellar attendance, with only 5 MMPs and 4 FMPs, and we were up against Red’s nearly full squad. We started off the game as we usually do, with a good defensive performance followed by terrible offense, giving the disc back to Red for their first hold. Red came out with the familiar KJ smother zone and we struggled for the first few points, going down 0-3 before finally settling in. It was clear that we were going to have to outpace their zone with quick disc movement to ensure that they couldn’t trap our cutters and our team quickly adapted to the strategy change. We punched in our next two offensive possessions cleanly, making the score 2-4. At this point, the normally reliable stable of receivers on Red just started dropping passes left and right. We took advantage of nearly every turn and very quickly found ourselves up 6-4. Fatigue from our guys and a smart regroup time out from Schimmel helped Red get back on track offensively and we traded to half, up 8-6.
Red would change up their zone strategy in the second half, and had Luke play man defense on me while the rest of the team played their normal zone. This pushed me downfield and they were able to force a couple of bad throws and break us the first point out of half. The change in strategy wouldn’t work against us again though, and we adapted once again to punch it in, 9-7. More drops from Red and we again quickly found ourselves with two more breaks, 11-7. We would lose both Michelle and Moyer around this point to a veterinary emergency and Red took advantage of our tired legs to mount a bit of a comeback but our lead was too big, final score 15-12.
Highlights for Red: Jared played a solid game despite having a blown hamstring. Matt kept Red’s offense moving the whole game and was exhausting to cover. Despite far too many drops for his liking, Luke played a solid game defensively, only letting Bhagya beat him deep once out of many attempts.
All nine of our players deserve MVP honors this week. We all worked our butts off against a very talented Red team. Thomas had an especially big game with four scores and a D. Extra big shout-out to Amelia who played her last game with us for the Summer and has been a very consistent contributor all season. We’ll miss you!