Saturday’s Pool Play lineup consisted of Las Positas, Humboldt State, Carleton GOP, and UCLA.
The first game against Las Positas started off smoothly for most everyone except for Coach Dollar who's stat sheet starts with "HUNGOVER. Didn't take stats for first four points. Squids 3-1" Many young players were able to get some extra playing time after the veterans built up a sizeable lead. Coppa catches loose frisbee in endzone and throws a turnover on 2 foot pass to open Kenobi. Fortunately, Coppa is already in endzone. Boom Baby! 11th Addition!
The offense looked great but the defense was a bit sloppy and despite the victory, we knew things had to shape up in order for us to keep winning.
UCSD: 13 Las Positas: 5
Next was Humboldt and this team has a small group of very experienced players who could not be taken lightly. The O was mostly solid. An exception: Brooks throws up some floaty huck to Forge and 3 Humbolt guys. Forge wins at .500 but Pumba yells at Brooks "That's fucking bullshit!" right in front of his Mom, Dad, and 13 year old sister. The defense did make a few plays but once again most of the turnovers were gifts as opposed to earned. We could all feel the need to step up our game for the 2nd half of the day.
UCSD: 13 Humboldt: 7
After a bye we started up against the high flying Carleton GOP. . Great disc skills, physical D, and a knack for huge lay outs and taking chances (and being very pasty white) was their M.O. though and they gave us the closest game yet. Time in and out their offense would come down with amazing grabs but a break early and another late in the game was enough for the Squids to secure their 3rd victory of the day. Yui, a grad student that played with us from last year, was on GOP during undergrad so there were plenty of drunken heckles to be had.
UCSD: 13 Carleton College GOP: 10
At last the game we had been looking forward to all day, UCLA, and we had a nice alumni contigent on the sidelines. This team, whom we often liken to our little brother, always brings fire and passion for our games (they were overheard saying “this is why we play ultimate!” in their pregame huddle). Tempers flared and bodies flew all over the field as the first half was a tight game.
Kattan gobbling up some trash. Probably from Brooks.
Neither team wanted to be the ones to falter first but fortunately we were able to capitalize on some critical UCLA mistakes to take a lead into half. Coming out with fire in our eyes the second half, the Squids cruised on the shoulders of their defense to a clean victory. One big turning point was when one of Bobble's big, blading flick pull hit some cutter who was trying to stop the roll - to bad it hadn't bounced yet.
They got him back though:
Some dude skied him so bad, that he had to hide from all the heckles. (Not really, I think this is a pic of after he got a D).
This is only in here to show how awkwardly Brooks catches the disc.
Finally the defense was beginning to play as we knew it could. We would need that as the games became increasingly difficult on Sunday.
Bid on the open side huck fake. Woulda been sweet if he'd thrown it.
Our zone that has always given them fits continues to cause many turns. I wonder if they will ever catch on. Bender drops his Callahan (...how many times do we do the Callahan catching drill??? Gosh!!) He catches a layout score to end the point(and game) to make up for it.
UCSD: 13 UCLA: 7
Sunday’s quarterfinal matchup brought Chico State to the table. This team runs the same “take the deep shot whenever” offense as San Diego teams are generally associated with. Their players continually were coming down with the hucks but fortunately our offense marched up and down the field with relative ease. Eventually our different defensive looks were able to generate some D’s and it was a decisive victory. The defensive intensity we always stress was not quite there yet, and it would have to be soon.
Unfortunately, Coppa decides to tear his kneecap in half to save face for getting skied.
By the way, the scoreboards that Cable (a fish) and Pumba made for every field were bad ass:
Quaterfinals: UCSD 13 – 8 Chico State
Semis and Finals will be in the next post.
Photo credits go to the amazing Amy "Meeko" Chang. Check out her site, she has some really great shots.
Funny how this shows up during finals week.
ReplyDelete