Our national title defense started late on Wednesday night as the team gathered in the beach condo, taking the last opportunity to watch film, massage legs and relax before the games begin. A first round game against an east coast opponent can be tough, but most of the team had been preparing for the time difference and got to sleep early on Wednesday night. We showed up to the fields a little late because of traffic but squeezed in a focused warmup before the national anthem signaled the start of the festivities.
In an exciting development, we also welcomed back Bart Watson (“the White”) from his mid-west/mid-season intermission.
Game 1 vs. Ring of Fire, 15-10
Our first game was against the three seed in our pool, Raleigh’s Ring of Fire. It was cloudy and cool on the polo fields, and already there was a good breeze that would stay for the entire day. We received to start the game and Ring came out with a zone transition look for the first few points. There were a few quick drops in the first two points as both teams adjusted to the wind, but for the most part the offenses dominated the first half of the game and we traded to 7-6. Highlights included Cassidy Rasmussen sending a great deep throw to Ashlin Joye for a quick score. We had our one last chance to break for half, and after a D on a floating swing, our defensive offensive finally struck, with Bart made a nice second effort grab before hitting Beau up line. We were happy with the half but we knew we were still in a tight game, and needed to come back out after the break with even more intensity.
Coming out of half on D again, we forced another turn before putting up a floating up-wind hospital pass that got a lucky tip out of a big pack into Mac Taylor’s hand, setting up a quick flip for the goal. Our defense started to roll, with good handler defense getting a third break. We suffered an unfortunate injury at 11-8 when Joel Schlachet bid for a dropping around throw and re-hurt his knee. Our offense got the disc back and maintained their un-broken game while the defense earned two more late to get the win, 15-10.
Game 2 vs. Madison Club, 15-7
We had a bone to pick with Madison Club after going to universe point at Labor Day. After watching their game against Machine, Dutchy gave us the rundown for the game – keep the cutters contained and make the handlers swing horizontally to earn yards. After our offense punched in the first point, our defense started where they had left off against Ring with two early breaks thanks to D’s by Mac and Sam Kanner, and some good throws by new addition Bart Watson. Madison got an upwind break back at 4-3, the first break given up by our offense, and with the field mostly upwind/downwind the break hung in the balance for a few points as our defense tried to earn back the downwind score while our offense did a great job working it upwind. Finally at 6-4 Adam “Chicken” Simon earned the break back with great handler pressure and grabbed a tipped, floaty dump for the Callahan goal. The break seemed to give us a handle on the game and after another turn and a great trailing edge save by Taylor Cascino going deep, we broke again to take half 8-4.
Madison’s offense converted out of the break as the wind picked up (and it even rained for a brief period) but the rest of the second half was all our defense – we earned 5 breaks on the backs of great downfield defense and short-field handler turns. We kept the intensity up to win 15-7.
Game 3 vs. Chicago Machine, 15-8
Our last game of the day was against the two seed, and because of Ring’s victory over Machine in the previous round we hadn’t yet secured the top spot in our pool. We came out a little low on energy for our first offensive point and Machine broke immediately with some unexpected hammers over the stack. The slap to the face woke us up and our defense earned the break back on its first point, with Bart knocking down a floaty IO. Still, Machine traded with us until 5-4 – highlights included Robbie nabbing a jump ball over two Chicago defenders, and Beau laying out deep to toe the back line. However, we turned the defense back up and generated three short-field turnovers and three breaks to take half, 8-4. From here, Machine seemed to lose a little energy and we never looked back – three more breaks in the second half gave us the 15-8 victory.
This was a great day for us – three solid wins, consistent intensity, sharp offense and grinding, effective defense. We watched a few of the other games before heading home to ice, eat and watch SF in Game 2 of the World Series. Power pools tomorrow pit us against Johnny Bravo and Doublewide – follow us on twitter for score updates or catch the live stream of our game against Texas!