YR Scrimmage

After a decent practice at Stanford on Saturday (only 12 guys, but we got some decent work done) I decided to unwind with a little sushi dinner at Coach Sushi in Oakland. They have all-you-can-drink sake for only $3.50. Then I threw up in my bed. That makes two times I've been to Coach; last time one of my roommates threw up in her bed, this time I did. Needless to say... I can't wait to go back.

The aftermath was a pretty legendary hangover. I got a ride down to Sunnyvale on Sunday morning with Aman and Shy, with NO plans of participating in the scrimmage against YR. When we got to the parking lot, they went to the field and I maintained my semi-fetal position on the backseat, still holding a McDonald's hashbrown that Aman had given me.
After about 10 minutes I shook out of that catatonic state and stumbled my way to the field, at about 9:15 (for a 10:00 scrimmage). YR was already warming up vigorously, while the SCUC [Scumbags this scrimmage, Christian Crusaders at practice Saturday, previously 9/11 Truthers and Jaeger Bombs] men were lounging about. I quickly dropped into my chair, figuring that was the most I would move for the next two or so hours.

Quick tangent: anyone that has played with me knows how ambivalent I feel about warming up. I argue that everyone is different, and that I personally don't need a strenuous hour warmup to get ready for a game. In that context, I absolutely love beating teams that warmup at game speed. With the Braineaters this season we would take a jog, do some plyos, maybe one box drill, and then play. And that was only because Weston wouldn't stand for anything less. Needless to say, I always take it easy in warmups.

Anyway, when gametime approached Joaq and Yeager pressured me to put my cleats on. I humored them, still not planning to break walking pace all day. I set up the field, and my state showed in the cone placement. Both sidelines were straight; both sidelines were 120 yards; but the field I paced out was about 40 yards apart at one back line and about 60 yards apart at the other. Luckily the YR guys corrected my mistakes.

The game started with a YR break. Oh boy. We had maybe 12 guys, while they had a full compliment of 20-25 with jerseys and everything. We started rolling, and I somehow was convinced/convinced myself (It's unclear) to play a point. I went in cold, hungover, and still drunk, and cut deep with about a 3 yard lead on my defender. The throw was ahead of us and floaty. Normally I would eat a throw like that up like beef jerky. This time, I basically let my guy catch up, jump, and d it while I was jogging straight ahead. I still can't believe my teammates let me on the field, let alone encouraged me to play.

I probably played about 4-6 points over the whole game and they were pretty similar to my first. One memorable one saw me drop a backhand score thrown by shy that bounced off my hands with no defender near. Usually if something like that happens I'll curse and get really pissed off at myself. This time I was in such a mental haze that I just shrugged and then got run all over the field by a handler making upline cuts.
I did at least get one nice sky, followed by a quick bitchy call-fest with the mark, followed by a thrown score. I guess no one enjoys getting pwned by a hungover sack of shit.

More game recap: we broke the hell out of them with ease to take half 8-3, and broke out of half to go up 9-3. YR seemed to be in shock. You could tell that they weren't happy to be getting blown out by a ragtag looking team like SCUC while Team Australia watched on. The second half was even as the SCUC legs got tired and YR cleaned up their game (got rid of the turfs and drops that plagued them the first half) and we won 15-10 (or 15-11... not exactly sure).
Big shout out to Joaq for getting two massive D's in one point, pulling well, and generally balling, especially in the first half.

Our roster for the day, courtesy of Joaq:
Aman
Benji
Connor
Gomez
Harrison
Joaq
Jughead (non-factor)
Laurent (late arrival)
Nat
Nate (late arrival)
Russle (late arrival)
Shy
TomTom
Yeager

Thoughts on YR: They traditionally play small ball, but it was hard to see much of an offensive philosophy here. There was no deep game to speak of, and the small ball stuff seemed rusty compared to what I've seen from them in the past. They throw out a tiny O-line, even compared to our squad which is on the shorter side. I guess the personnel fits their game plan. Maybe there is just a dearth of strong young players in the Bay Area (judging from our two rosters). On D, they weren't generating turnovers, but did get some nice close call bids.

I still can't wait for our team to be able to field its strongest roster, which frankly might no happen until the series. With how well we've played so far (winning Solstice with a skeleton crew, smashing YR with a little bit less of a skeleton crew but nowhere near our full squad), I can see us doing some big things if our attendance ever improves.

Aman and Shy sold me out afterwards and didn't want to stay for Revolver vs Team Australia, so we rode back up to Berkeley to watch the tail-end of Fury vs Team Australia (women obviously). The game was pretty sloppy, and from what I saw the Aussies were unimpressive, but I know they were battling jetlag and the field was slippery and it was somewhat windy. For Fury, Alex Snyder was definitely the standout player. Her throws are money, and she had one especially sick long IO flick break for a goal. It looked like Fury ran their endzone Iso with the stack hugging one sideline and one cutter roaming in the end zone. Maybe that was just one called play because I didnt see too much of them, but I can't imagine an opponent would let themselves get fooled by that more than once in a game. Fury's throws were much sharper than Australia's, and I didn't see any great feats of athleticism by either team.

Conclusion: I was hungover until the next morning. I don't think I had a clear pee all day. We beat YR.