I haven't felt motivated to write for a while, but winning a tournament has a way of getting you excited about ultimate again.
Until recently, this summer has been a grind. Studying for the bar kind of sucked the life out of me, and Condors have been grinding out long practices without much actual playing yet this summer. I wasn't able to go to the 1 day Scramble, so the last time I played a real game with the Condors was in late May, and it was with a squad of 13.
We knew ahead of time that the level of play at Discos wasn't going to be very high. I pushed hard to go to the tourney, though, because I thought it was important to build chemistry and log more games playing together before the series. I hadn't really played with a lot of my teammates, so I think every game we can get together is beneficial. Also, Chico is really fun.
There were 8 open teams, but only Wolves, Boost and Condors had a real chance of winning it. (Why the change from Wolf? I always liked the lone wolf sound of it.) We started at 1 PM, during the hottest part of the day - probably around 95. We were efficient with putting away the first two teams, Chico and some Cal college guys, many of whom had played 3 games of co-ed right before. Both teams went down 13-2, and we had plenty of time to hydrate and re-apply sunscreen between rounds. The big game of the day was against Boost Mobile, a very athletic squad of Palo Alto/Stanford guys. Their scouting report is in th
eir name. We were pumped up to play them again after receiving a frustrating 15-10 loss at the thrown together Cal States in May. This time, we had a full team and a few months of practice under our belts.
We broke them for a score out of the gates and never let them see a lead again for the rest of the game. Our offense moved the ball quickly and we took only smart deep shots when they presented themselves. Our D was on fire this game, including a couple of super impressive layout D's on hucks from Peter Raines. It stayed pretty close til the end when we pulled away from them with another break or two to take the game 13-8.
Sunday had us in quarters against Paradox, a first year team out of Long Beach. They struggled with both our tight man D and our junky zone looks all game, and we took the game quickly 13-0. Semis were against an Oregon team, Darkstar, that drove down to the tourney in the NexGen bus driven by Cody Bjorklund. They played flashy Oregon style offense (which I love) but they didn't quite have the skill to make it effective. We won 13-5.
We went over to see the end of the other semi, Wolves vs Boost, which came down to the wire. Wolves were up a couple (9-7?) when we showed up, but Boost got a break or two back to bring it to universe. Wolves received on offense and dropped a nice medium range huck to take the game.
We were 1-1 versus Wolves this season before the game, beating their tryout team at Cal States, but losing on universe at the Scramble. They had a lot of turnover after last year but, Bay Area ultimate being what it is, they still have a lot of talent. We scored the first point of the game on a quick huck by Ian, and then broke them on a dirty layout D by Curtis the next point. We got another turn the next point, but I over threw a downwind huck to Dirty Dan by a few feet, and they scored to make it 2-1. After that, things took a ba
d turn for us.
Shy and Mateo were abusing us on the break side, dropping dimes on offense. Our O had a bunch of mistakes, bad decisions and tight D by them that had them taking half 7-4. We traded out of half until 10-6, when our D went crazy. I think the heat and fatigue started getting to the Wolves, because their hucks started floating and our D line started getting opportunities for huge blocks. Adam Bolenbaugh in particular went crazy during the second half of this game and got us some huge D's (pictured).
The momentum of the game turned very quickly. Wolves made sure the caps were on, and used some time outs to try to stop swing of the game, but it was too late. We got possession at 11-11 and brought it down to the goal line. The hard cap sounded a few seconds before we connected on a short pass and the game was over. 12-11. I always prefer to just let finals play with no caps, but we had an 8 hours ride home ahead of us, so I wasn't complaining. After a quick dip in the river, the ride home was a much happier one than it would have been otherwise.
This game made me happy that I chose to play with the Condors. I've been on teams in the past that would have folded in the same situation, but instead my teammates got angry and stepped up. We might not be the most experienced team, but we're sure as hell not going to give up.
Next weekend: Chicago Heavyweights. So excited.
