Game 1 was against a full-strength Carolina and we again fielded a partial squad with Luke in the far off land of Tampa, Matt enjoying a night at the hospital, Dan finishing up work and me a shambling half-man. Fortunately, we had all 4 of our women to throw at Natalie and Michelle. Unfortunately, none of our women would follow my advice to push and trip more and so they continued to work the frisbee up the field effectively. Ultimately, we realized we had to run a zone which worked well and, due to this as well as some key drops and miscues from Carolina, we took half up 6 to 3. Unfortunately, I went to get a drink and when I looked up we were tied 7 to 7. I’m not sure what happened and certainly take no personal responsibility. At this point, we had the disc on offense and, thanks to a well-timed cramp and injury call from Brad, found ourselves playing universe for the game. YOLO calmly worked up the disc with high probability throws until about 20 yards out when a help d left me unguarded in the end zone and TK finished the game with a very accurate blade. I expect and hope to see Carolina in the finals, especially because they will be missing Zach and Michelle. This game also featured a great matchup between Mike and Nate, where Mike showed that 40 pounds more muscle and 4 years more experience matter and Nate showed that, despite quickly becoming an elite ultimate player, he still has a lot to learn about properly spiking a disc.
Game 2 was against Orangutan. In contrast to Carolina, Orangutan was missing a number of key players and YOLO added Dan and a recovered/hydrated Brad. Thanks to tight D, consistent offense and some orange drops, we came out 4-0. Despite sage warnings from Jim Davis, YOLO loosened up our play and Orangutan came back with some good O and D plays, especially from Kelsea, but never closed the early gap, and we ended the game 9-5. A few memories pop out including the experience versus youth match-up between Tom and Nathaniel which included a very nice deep cut and catch score by Tom, and the match-up between Ben and Mike where I was very impressed with how close Ben guarded Mike, but more impressed that it didn’t matter. Final shoutouts to Monica for coming out with a score and assist to start the game hot along with solid D, and Alethia for an athletic score and somersault celebration.