Hello Gainesville! We’re here with another update from your favorite home-grown frisbee team, the Duloc Dingers! This week we had another spicy double header in the slightly-less-scorching fall sun, yet still enough to bring sweat to our brows.
Our first game was against the legendary Puss in Cleats. In a nutshell, we definitely ended up like most of Puss’ opponents: scratching our head and wondering what just happened. Thankfully not with P’s etched in our clothes though.
For whatever reason, Duloc was missing their classic perfect formation and chemistry. Puss managed to capitalize on every mistake, going up 6-0 to take half. The second half was better, with Duloc putting up four points of our own. I don’t know if it’s correct to say that we settled down in the second half, since three of those points were upside down throws. Perhaps you could say we cranked up the crazy (who would expect that from Duloc?) and managed to get some licks in before Puss finished carving out their 11-4 victory.
On the offense side, mad kudos have to be given to our upside-down throw connoisseurs, Hooper (for the hammers) and Andrew (for the scoobers), as well as the catchers Alison and Miles. These were certainly not easy catches to make in the heat of the moment, but these Dingers got it done. In the handler space, Jess, Thomas, Van, and Ben were tearing it up, getting us in position to score these amazing points.
I wish as much could be said on the defense side, but the PICs managed to play very tight O and left us with very few holes to exploit. Still, we had some moments. Miles had a very nice D in the first point with superb jump timing, and Andrew and Van managed to secure some D stats. And as a team, we pulled out a single break which gave a much-needed boost of morale.
From the Puss in Cleats side, most of what they did was flawless, but there were a few moments that have stuck out in my memories. Plant had a very tidy handblock early on, with the added misfortune of it being on our goal line. RIP us. The other play was also from Plant, but it was an assist to Champion! A heart-warming father-son moment, and it was actually somewhat of a difficult catching position, so good on you Champion!
The second game was against an unquestionable law of the universe: Everyone Loves Parfaits. Duloc had by then pulled back into our perfect formation which really showed compared to the last game. After starting on Defense, we managed to break twice and go up 3-1. But then disaster. Even the most perfect of formations cannot hold to the sweet whispers of Parfaits. Weakened as we were, our formation was loosened, and the Parfaits broke back twice, putting things back on serve. The rest of the game was simultaneously mundane and riveting, as it remained on serve alllll the way to 9-9; Duloc’s perfect form vs the deliciousness and well-balanced-ness of Parfaits. Parfaits went up 10-9, then, more disaster. A fateful whiff of the blueberries, yogurt, and granola loosened Duloc at an inopportune moment. The Parfaits capitalized, taking with them the final break and another win.
For the offense, this was Van’s day, putting up two assists and three points and being a near constant presence all over the field. Alison had a phenomenal grab to score from a Switzer around. Andrew had a wicked sky over Joe in the first point, just had that perfect Duloc timing! And the report wouldn’t be complete without Hooper’s “Here it comes” call right before throwing a hammer to Switzer. We’re nothing if not considerate here in Duloc.
On defense, we definitely upped our game. Alison, Andrew and Devon all managed to snag D’s on some long huck attempts from ELP, and Van was big with 2 whole D’s. Overall as a team, our defense was much more cohesive. We made our own luck in a lot of ways, and it was a in a large part to the defense that allowed us to keep trying to break the deadlock.
For the ELP, several shout outs are in order. First is Bueno who had a very sick layout D attempt. It was a split second too late, but was still majestic to behold. Next, I think Joe managed to get it to Ellie and Ellie managed to get it to Joe. Does that count for more points? Not this time, but it was certainly an exercise in reciprocation. And finally, the one and only Steven Nguy reminded all of us why we force him flick with the unleashing of several powerful backhand assists.
That’s all for this week. Hope to see everyone next week!