After the slow starts of previous weeks, the mission this week was to come out the gate with energy and good decisions. Within three passes on the first point, we already threw the disc away and put the very Hungry Caterpillars up a break (spoiler alert, this would be the difference in the game). Oops. From there, both teams played pretty stingy offense with turns coming at a premium except for one point in the middle of the first half that I think both teams would like to forget that turned into a terrible decision huckfest. We would get our break back but give up another in the first half, with Caterpillars taking half 8-7.
We were still very hopeful, though, since we are typically a second half team and the Caterpillars were looking winded already, while our army of cutters were still daisy-fresh. To their credit and my surprise, the tight lines that the Caterpillars ran never really seemed to run out of energy. Big catches from Andrew Pohl and some surprising hucks from Nathan “More Than Just a Deep Threat” Schaller took the wind out of our sails throughout the second half. We would close the gap to within 1 and force double game point, but unfortunately a stall 9 mid-range huck from Nathan would catch Bailey by surprise and be easily caught by Steven who immediately threw a flick to the backhand side to a skying Andrew Pohl for the game winner.
We had some standout performances from both Riley and Laura this week. I believe Jess and Nathan tried 5 different matchups against Riley to stop him from getting the disc and all of them failed. The middle of the field was his domain and he facilitated several goals by keeping the disc moving. Laura also had a huge D on a goal line stand that helped us close the gap in the middle of the game. She rounded out here stat line with 0 turnovers and a goal. On a personal note, I completed a huck for a goal to my wife, which for anyone who has played with us for any significant period of time, knows is about as rare as our children behaving for an entire game.
Despite the L, we at least didn’t roll over like we did in the first encounter against our less evolved counterparts. I’m hopeful we end up playing again in the playoffs as I’ve learned an apparently legal new strategy for how to defend Nathan, which involves sweeping the leg (j/k… maybe).