Sunday was the first week where our attendance was anything less than excellent, with only 7 flying cutters available at game time. Who knew that drafting a team full of college students would have issues when school wasn’t in session? Lucas would join us several points into game 2 after a 4.5 hour drive back from Sarasota (yay I-75 traffic!) to give us a much needed sub.
Our first game was against an equally decimated Dragonflies squad. At 2:10, with only 5 players present, Devon chose to let us assess a point rather than try to play 7 on 5. At 2:14:59, their 6th player rolled in and we got the game started. Up 1-0 and pulling upwind, we were very efficiently scored on. Playing 6 on 7, the Dragonflies had no other option than to play zone against us for most of the first half. We got a little too excited on several points and gave them some easy turnovers, but were able to get most of them back thanks to some out of character, hilariously bad throws from Colverson (he tried to pull back a flick huck and threw it straight sideways out of bounds, also launched a hammer that landed about 5 feet in front of him and traveled another 20 yards on the ground). Doc Brown also apparently has a vendetta against my face and tried to huck into it from 5 feet away, not once, but twice. Good for our team, bad for my hand / wrist. We took half up 6-2 behind some consistent play from our German teammates, Andy and Laura. Come second half, the Dragonflies would outnumber us with late arrivals from Matt Henry and Regan. Big spirit shoutout to captain Devon who let us play 6 on 6 after a toddler bathroom emergency took the responsible parent (Michelle) off the field. Our ladies did a good job of handling the gender mismatch and limiting the Dragonflies ability to take advantage. The second half went pretty much the same way as the first half, capped off by a huck from Plant (he’s more than just an unguardable deep threat!) to Bailey for the win, 11-4.
Game 2 was against a very top-heavy group of bumblebees. Watching them finish their first round game with male matching players of Billy, Joe, Fletcher, Pat, Ben and Adam, I wasn’t sure how our savage squad of guys plus having a lady guard one of their guys was going to go so we pretty much had to play zone on defense. At one point Michelle and Nes said we should switch to person, to which I asked, okay which guy does one of you want to cover? They promptly changed their mind. As expected, the handling core of Fletcher, Ben, and Joe had little trouble making me sprint all over the field, but some lucky wind gusts that sailed the disc over Billy helped us get an early break. Wind giveth, wind taketh away as within a few points Bumble would find themselves up a break after I threw a pass that bounced over Laura’s head and a downwind huck didn’t have enough on it to get around Pat. Billy also reached his peak jumping height to deny an easy hammer goal to Plant. Bumble took half 6-4, with us coming out on defense.
With the arrival of Lucas, we were able to match-up gender-wise which let us try going man in the second half. We came out hot, getting back to breaks to tie it up. Our ladies were very much responsible for our offensive efforts in the second half, with Michelle and Nes dominating the handler space, and Laura having some big battles with Liz downfield. We pretty much traded points until the hard cap horn blew forcing a double game point with us pulling. Having had some moderate success in limiting Billy’s ability to destroy us in the deep space, I took him for the final point. Backing him by several yards, he’s constantly getting 5-10 yard gains and as they get closer to the red zone, I try to get my second handblock on him by overpursuing into the dump space. He gets the throw off and immediately bolts deep. The pass is underthrown and I’m in perfect position to get the D, which bounces off my hand, travels another several yards into the endzone…right into Billy’s pancake for the game winner. BUT WAIT! Someone on my team paid attention to the scouting report that Joe “What’s a pivot foot” Fleury isn’t capable of hucking a flick without traveling! Disc goes back. Several passes later, Billy gets the disc under, and you would think I would have learned my lesson, but nope, try to steal another handblock. Billy bolts deep and with no chance of catching up, I launch my hat and nailed the hucked disc just out of his and Bailey’s reach. We’re talking #SCTop10 material, but apparently that’s not allowed, so the game ended in the most anti-climatic fashion ever, with an uncontested spirit-foul goal.
Memorable moment mentions:
On one of the first points of the game, Plant superman lays out for a goal line D only to have the disc mack into the air and go straight to a wide open Liz.
Not once, but twice, I volley-ball spiked a hammer fake out of the throwers hands. On the one against Adam, the disc somehow flew directly into his face and made his sunglasses spectacularly explode. RIP glasses, but thankfully Adam wasn’t hit at all.
No MVPs for us this week since everyone played exceptionally well. Despite going 1-1, this was a good day for the Cutterflies. Everyone got a ton of PT, which has been a common complaint in previous weeks, we were very competitive, and had a lot of fun. Looking forward to the rest of our team joining us next week and preparing to make a deep run into the playoffs!