Thursday, December 25, 2008

SFUC Week 6

Sorry this took so long, I might've had a good write-up if it was timely...
We played the top ranked, undefeated team and beat them.
Boom.
I threw one of the best backhand hucks of my life. Caught a few goals. The whole team was rollin.
Unfortunately, I'll be missing the next game because I'll be on a family vacation. Seems crazy that they scheduled a game on Dec. 30, right?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

SFUC Week 5

Moral Hazard faced an extremely tough team this Tuesday against the Mudslingers, and unfortunately we ended up with our first L. After a quick perusal of their roster beforehand, I was pretty confident that we would be able to cruise. Unfortunately, there are apparently still a good number of Jam/Brass Monkey/Mischief players whose name I don't recognize. In addition to having a few of those guys, the Mudslingers had a couple Fury women as well.

The bad guys started the game on a quick run, getting 3 easy breaks with a simple zone that we made a few silly mistakes against (i.e. drops). We stormed back with a big run of our own to take a 6-4 lead. I was in my element, scoring a few easy goals on big ass hucks and assisting on another that I caught just on the goalline. I was doing a decent job on Mischief's Adam Leventhal, who killed us over the course of the game.

My decent job was not to last. I got broken up and down the field by his around backhand that he released just next to my right thigh, under my outstretched arm. He also surprised me with a few deep cuts that I released him on, thinking he was out of his thrower's range. They went on another run of their own, bringing the score to 10-8 Mudslingers. As Slap pointed out, it was a game of runs. Unfortunately, we couldn't uphold our end of the bargain by making a final run.

We scored to bring the score to 12-11 Mudslingers, and pulled. They slowly worked their way downfield, with us taking away the killshots but giving up the unders. Somewhere past half field, Leventhal got the disc and looked for that around break yet again. After being on the field with him on probably 80% of the points, I had finally figured out the throw and got all of the throw with my cleat for the D. I did my usual move of slowly trotting to the middle of the field to set a stack and then sprinting deep when I saw Shy pick up the disc out of the corner of my eye. But he holstered it!! Devastating. I didn't actually get too open on the cut, but knowing that he trusts me with that type of look in any game situation I figured the throw would come anyway. Somehow we turned the disc, and they punched it in for the game. Oh well.

Better to lose now than to roll into playoffs with the undefeated target on our backs. How's that for getting ahead of ourselves? Ha.

At any rate, this was definitely the poorest performance by the whole team in general and by me in particular so far this season. I wasn't getting anything on offense; my double moves that usually get me wide open deep weren't working for whatever reason, either because my defenders were fantastic or because my all my toes were literally numb... but I'll blame the former. Because my fingers were similarly frozen, I was hesitant to cut under when our stack was stagnant, as it constantly was this game. It was a frustrating game to look back on and realize that I could have made things a lot easier for the whole team by just running in a straight line to the thrower. Time for some author-reader interaction: How can I keep my fingers warm in the cold? Any cold weather players out there (Midwest, Northeast), I'm looking at you. Hand warmers? anything?

We were also hurt a lot by our roster makeup for the game. We were missing our best player, Jam's Kevin Buchanan (who I didn't realize was still playing for them until I just looked up their roster...), as well as Whit and Claire, two of our strongest players. The biggest problem was that with them all absent, throwing cutters were forced to handle, leaving a cutting corps without great downfield throws. Additionally, we had our best attendance yet from the bottom half of the roster.

All in all, it was a disappointing game, but still fun as hell. I was certainly not feeling down at any point in the game as I might if the Braineaters had been in a similar game.

Bonus feature: Those who know me know that I carry a handkerchief with me wherever I go out of necessity, even on the field. Well, it came in handy on Tuesday in a non-nose function, and I won't be using it again. Figure that one out.

Link I would be remiss in not sharing: Over at Shy's Blog, he has started an absolutely incredible feature called Best of my College Ultimate (lose the acronym, buddy) in which he goes back to some of the Braineaters' most significant and exciting games and recaps them all with the help of his videoographic memory (did I just make up a phrase?). Word on the street is when he regains access to the corpus of game footage that was partially lost in a hard drive crash, these recaps will be accompanied by the relevant footage. Awesome.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

SFUC Week 4

Week 4, Game vs. Pork Barrel Projects.
They featured Jam players Ryo Kawaoka and Justin Safdie, the 2000 Callahan winner, and Fury's Erin Percival.
Compared to my first two games with Moral Hazard (I missed one to go watch my Trailblazers lose to the Warriors at Oracle) where we absolutely mopped up a couple teams with ease, this game was tense, cold as balls, and managed to be sloppy and high level at the same time.
The temperature had to be in the mid 40s or so, which is extraordinarily cold when you are used to playing in Southern California, or Northern California in the summer. Additionally, there was dew all over the nice FieldTurf fields, making it tough to change directions and to grip the disc. From tossing with Shy before the game, I could tell that my throws would be terrible this game. I ended up only throwing one turnover, but it was more due to a ill-executed rushed throw by me to a fast break cutter in the end zone who wasn't making it easy on me. The cold did severely affect me though; I was looking off in-cuts that were anywhere near a defender because I had absolutely no touch on my flick. I was reduced to looking upfield for about 2 counts and then turning to look dump.
Segue! Our dump game was singularly pathetic this game. Throwers were refusing to look to the dump even when they were uncovered and nothing was open downfield. This led to about four turnovers in the first half. Furthermore, the dumps weren't getting open. Not moving, not getting separation when they did move. It was frustrating to watch when I wasn't in.
Despite that shortcoming, it's clear that our team is chock full of ballers. We have some incredible throwers, cutters, and defenders from both genders, and our weaker links are not great
liabilities.
The first half of the game was full of these dump errors, in addition to the normal turnovers that can be expected in a frigid league game. They were outplaying us with easy swings and openside cuts, and our huck game was off. Cutters were getting separation, but the throws weren't coming out high or far enough, probably due to the temperature. Slap was making huge bids as normal, but things weren't going her way and her frustration was showing. (I think she is the most outstanding [as in her abilities stand out] player in the league so far from what I've seen).
The second half was a different story for us. We started generating turnovers and cleaned up our offensive game quite a bit. The game had some contentious calls, but they were all resolved in a nice League fashion. We went on a little run to push the score to 10-8 in a game to 13, and traded to win 13-11.

Besides the lack of any throwing capabilities, I had a blast this game. I love going up against the Jam and Revolver men, and now that I am getting my legs back under me I was doing some good things out there. I had probably 4-5 / 13 goals, and played good defense on Safdie downfield and worked hard on the mark shutting down the ubiquitous break mark throws that Pork Barrel Projects were getting against us.
My clear personal highlight of the game was putting a major hurting on Justin Safdie in the air early in the second half. I made a lil double move from the back of the stack and took off toward the right back corner with Safdie about 5-6 yards trailing. The throw went up at a tough angle for me, a high floaty outside-in flick to the middle of the field. I changed my course, and Safdie was able to catch up easily because of the float. He is a lot bigger than me and managed to get his bulk on me to box me out when the disc was floating down. At the last moment I disengaged from his box out and went up high and early and snatched it in the end zone. I love it. To be fa
ir, he got me earlier when he was at the back of the end zone and his thrower put up a blade to him and he boxed me out and skied me. To be really fair, I got him even earlier when the huck to a deep cut I made on him was a five foot high laser and I snatched it from right in front of his face.
The most exciting sequence of the game was at 12-11, game point, they had the disc on the goalline on the far right sideline coming out of a timeout. My man was the iso at the front of the stack. Everyone was setting up after the timeout, and I was standing up watching both teams mill around waiting for them to stop so we could play. Next thing I know, my guy is sprinting to the left cone for a catch while everyone continues to get set in the stack. I call violation, he argues that since our marker tapped it in it's in, a small discussion ensues
with everyone on the field, disc goes back. I have no idea what the actual rule there is but it seems like sending it back is the only fair way to settle it. ANYWAY, they tap it in and get a swing across the field and toss a little throw for the score, but IN COMES SHY LIKE A FLYING WALRUS to get the layout D and save the goal! I am making terrible deep cuts like crazy trying to end it, we work it up the field in spite of that, and I get a short goal for the win.
Delicious.

Catching Up





Loyal readers,
I apologize for having disappeared for a month despite bloggable goings-on going down. Excuse: I had a temp job, which didnt leave much time for anything else. I don't know how real employed adults can find time to keep detailed blogs...
What you missed:

1. Sean Ryan.
Braineaters got 6th place I believe, losing a stinker to SLO in which SLO played great and Claremont refused to make adjustments against a team that was beating them with a strictly open-side offense. On Sunday, they lost a total barn-burner to the Slugs in a placement game. Maniac established himself as the preseason favorite for Claremont Callahan nominee in my eyes. Boo of the weekend: Weston taking my bag to a car from the fields without my knowledge, leading to an 8 hr period in which I was separated from my boys.

2. SoCal Warmup.
Braineaters got 5th place. In Santa Cruz they didn't look especially great in their wins, but San Diego was a different story. Claremont really takes care of business on Saturday, dispatching opponents with ease as the Hodags and refusing to play down to the competition. The Hodag theme was executed awesomely. Markham jumped past an absent Maniac in my Callahan book with his typical break mark throws to space that the cutter isn't expecting but can bring in easily because they are so perfect. And his pulls were ON. Quarterfinals on Sunday sucked big time. USD had few capable throwers, but one little guy that was jacking huge flick hucks with no qualms. I think he was probably literally 9 for 9 or so, with many of the completions coming on huge skies over our guys. We struggled against their basic zone, with no movement anywhere on the field. My prescription: the handlers need to get together and play mini with each other to develop short chemistry.

3. Homecoming
I went home to Seattle with Rachel for Thanksgiving/my birthday. It was dope. Caught a Husky Hoops win, good times with family, and a blowout joint birthday party with me, Greg, Kevin, and Sam. Lost to Greg in 1-on-1 hoops. Fuck me.

4. SFUC Winter League.
I am playing on an SFUC Winter League team, weekly games in The Shitty. My team is awesome; 4-0 so far, and I get to play with Claremont stalwarts Shy, Whit, Claire, Abby, and assorted other ballers. I'll start posting game recaps today through the future, I promise.

5. Cultimate
I here from a little birdy that Cultimate has some more tricks up their sleeves, but I passed on hearing the details for the sake of ruining my night. We shall see.

6. RSD
Slow right now... not much going on in the Fall I guess.

7. Birthday Presents
Wall-E DVD. F yeah. Already watched the movie, and then the movie again with Director's commentary, and the Audio Mixing feature, and the new short.
Allagash Curieux
Chimay Premiere
Bike Lock
Bike Light

photos from Daniel Bobrowsky (Maniac) 's Facebook Albums.