Category: Ring of Fire

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Nationals – Friday

Revolver – USA Ultimate Club Championships – Day 2 (Friday, October 28, 2011)

Rain sprinkled on and off throughout the day, but the air remained warm and low on wind (not like what we’re used to in Northern California). We set up two big tents over the Insta-bench and three coolers of food, drinks, and ice, and set to work.

Game 4 – 9:30a v. Machine (Chicago, IL) – Power Pool E
Machine pulled to start but Robbie Cahill turned it over on a deep throw. Machine’s D-line took the opportunity to work the disc all the way back to our endzone before we forced a high-stall throw that hung up for Beau Kittredge to outjump the pack and swat it down. Shortly thereafter Cassidy Rasmussen sent a beautiful backhand huck to a wide-open Josh Wiseman for the goal. We traded a break each early on and then earned two toward the end of the half for an 8-5 lead. At 9-6 Revolver’s D-line went on a run with five straight break points, which included a forced stall by Jon Levy’s mark. Final score: 15-7.

Game 5 – 12:15p v. Ring of Fire (Raleigh, NC) – Power Pool E
The winner of this game would take the top seed into the quarterfinal bracket. Noticeably, super-athlete Ken Porter of Ring took the day off (torn rotator cuff from their Thursday game against Furious George). One of our main goals was to limit Brett Matzuka’s effectiveness as a many-tooled handler by forcing him away from the disc, which we generally accomplished, though he’s too good and fast to be shut down all the time. Ashlin Joye fired up our team early with a huck handblock, yielding the first break and a 3-1 lead. It didn’t take long for Ring to get that back, though, tying the score at 4-4. A few more breaks resulted in an 8-6 halftime lead. Ring evened the score at 9-9 with yet another break to keep the game close, but at 10-10 Ring pulled out of bounds, allowing a one-throw goal from Bart Watson to Robbie Cahill. On the ensuing point Patrick Baylis leaped to knock away a deep hammer shot in the endzone; thankfully, the observer overturned the intended receiver’s foul call on the play. A long slog back the other way exhibited the D-line’s capacity for patience, including two more observer-overturned calls by Ring. We finished with yet another late-game run to win 15-11. Taylor Pope displayed impressive pulls and forehand hucks, leading to a couple of important breaks for Ring’s D-line.

After catching the last several entertaining points in the Ironside-Doublewide match, most of the team headed back to the beach house as the sprinkle fledged into a rain. We’ve got barbeque for dinner, over which we’ll prepare to meet Southpaw in a quarterfinal tomorrow morning. Until then, board games and World Series game 7 will keep our attention, at least until we turn in around the 7th or 8th inning.

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ECC Sunday

Revolver – Emerald City Classic – Day 3 (Sunday, July 14, 2011)

Game 6 – 8:00a v. Urutau (Colombia) – Pool Play

It was an early start so we rolled to the fields at a leisurely pace, but still started warming up before our opponents from South America. The first half went quickly as we led 8-1 on the backs of the D-line. Nick Chapman and Jon Levy both caught two goals and Martin Cochran and Mac Taylor each served two assists. Nick Schlag showed his skill with an ¡imposible! 40 yard around beak-mark flick to his wingman Josh Wiseman (9-2). Joel Schlachet hit Devon Anderson for the 15-5 win. The inter-squad post-game circle was great as we exchanged compliments and the Colombians invited us to their country for a tournament this fall. Maybe we can make it happen!

Game 7 – 10:05a v. Rhino (Portland) – Quarterfinal

Our offense scored first and we broke right away after Mac notched a deep D against the super-athletic Timmy Perston (orange beanie) off a backhand by Revolver alumnus Seth Wiggins. Mac turned and went the other way, so Ashlin Joye connected with a big backhand; a quick blade over to Russell Wynne made it 2-0. Other first half highlights include Devon with awesome acceleration to run past speedy Breeze Strout for a huck D and Beau Kittredge tallying a D, a goal, and two assists, including a nice backhand huck to Wiseman in stride. 8-6 at half as Rhino kept it close, breaking our O-line once. Mac later outran Seth, no simple feat, to block an away throw, which brought the lead to 13-7. The offense closed out the game and a strong second half 15-8 on a two-throw point, the long ball from Adam “Chicken” Simon to Bart Watson.

Game 8 – 12:10p v. Ironside (Boston) – Semifinal

This was the first rematch of last year’s national championship game, so both sides were eager to hit the ground running. Boston received to start and soon broke first to take a 1-3 lead, but we broke right back to tie it at three apiece after an overthrown huck. At 5-4 Ashlin marked primary thrower Matt Rebholz so well that he was forced to chuck a stall nine blade that fell incomplete. We worked it back and Mark Sherwood threw a break-mark hammer to Martin for the 6-4 lead. Ironside’s Muffin later sent a forehand bomb off a pull play to young gun George Stubbs (who otherwise had an impressive game), but Chapman knocked it out of the air; several throws later Ryo Kawaoka ripped a low backhand huck that Dan Forseter nicely defended, but the disc popped up in the air long enough for Levy to run under with the help goal (7-4). We took half 8-5 after a gorgeous inside-out backhand huck up the break side from Schlag to Bart. Later, Robbie Cahill shot a flick over the stack, where Wiseman made an amazing trailing edge layout grab but landed hard on his knee (11-7). Somebody nicknamed “Kibs” experienced double happiness when he foot-blocked Bart’s backhand then beat him to the spot in the endzone to close the score to 12-10. We traded out, including a couple of great deep plays by Ironside to Peter Prial, as the O-line steadily held on game point for the 15-12 victory.

Some may wonder about our D-line’s unusual approach to the pull this year. Those curious should check out the UltiVillage footage. We’ll let Cassidy do the talking, here:

“The Boston coach came over and asked me about the D team’s huddle. He said, ‘How does that work? How do you know who you’re covering?’ I told him, ‘I have no idea. I had one point with them and screwed it up and now they won’t let me play on the D-line anymore.'”

Game 9 – 2:20p v. Ring of Fire (North Carolina) – Final

A rematch of our first game–the alpha and the omega! After a grade A pull by Jonathan Hester, Russell caught a deep shot for the block; a few passes ensued and Mac threw a blade forehand up the line to wide-open Ashlin for the first break of the game (2-0). We took two consecutive breaks for a 6-2 lead and they broke back once before we won half 8-5. After a successful offensive point out of half we broke three times in a row to 12-5. Hester laced another great grade A- pull and Chapman climbed the ladder for the deep D; then Chapman sprinted the other way and Hester snapped a long forehand to him for the break (10-5). On the next point both Zach Travis and Pat Baylis had highlight-reel layout blocks. Bart subbed in for Baylis after his man rolled over him and immediately bladed a flick to Mac (11-5). On the next point Devon easily blocked a hanging deep throw before Ashlin shot a perfectly placed backhand to Russell (12-5). We pushed it to 13-6 as Hester made up for a turnover by forcing a throwaway and calmly throwing through a nasty multiple-foul mark for the goal to Bart. On game point the O-line swung to Bart, who put a forehand onto Beau, in stride, to win 15-8.

ECC champions! Full results here. It’s a good start, but worth noting that the last two winners in Burlington went on to lose in the finals at Sarasota…

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ECC Friday

Revolver – Emerald City Classic – Day 1 (Friday, July 12, 2011)

The whole squad traveled to Seattle last night except Eric Greenwood, who is presently in Iceland. The injured reserve includes Taylor Cascino (hamstring) and Eric Halverson (back). The questionable, Russell Wynne (ankle) and Beau Kittredge (foot), both played after testing it out in warm-ups. The captains handed down 2011 wingmen assignments before the first game, leading to much high-fiving, chest bumping, and general celebration.

Game 1 – 2:30p v. Ring of Fire (North Carolina)

Notable in the first five points, both Mark Sherwood and rookie Zach Travis tallied two impressive layout Ds apiece. After scoring on O to make it 5-4, the D-line earned two breaks after Ring turned over two dump passes near the endzone on catch blocks by Mark Sherwood and Jon Levy. The D-line’s offense was sloppy in the first half, but we managed to take an 8-5 lead into the break as Josh Wiseman cut deep totally uncovered against a poachy man D and Bart Watson launched an easy IO flick huck for the score. Our man defense was more aggressive and impressive in the second half. Bart Watson skied for Ds on two hucks to salvage offensive points. For Ring, athletic #00 Ken Porter tossed his body around as usual, including two tough layout attempts that led to brief injury timeouts. In the end, Robbie Cahill shot an up the line backhand huck to Beau Kittredge for a 15-10 win.

Game 2 – 7:30p v. Bunka Shutter Buzz Bullets (Japan)

We love these guys. To both teams’ delight, Mark Sherwood had roamed their sidelines earlier in the day in full a full blue Buzz kit that he had traded for last season in Prague. Neither team played their prettiest this evening, though. Sam Kanner had a giant sky of their superstar Masahiro, only to lazily throw a lefty backhand behind a wide-open Martin Cochran to miss the goal. Oops! The crowd gasped for that one…. Ashlin Joye had a great layout catch block outside of the endzone to prevent a sure goal. Our game plan had included stopping the give-go but Buzz continued to get the jump on us. Revolver broke to take half 8-4 on a short pass from Russell Wynne to Nick Chapman, who had also made a superb layout block on an under cut by Masahiro. In the second half the offense had several miscommunications and Buzz capitalized to close the gap to 10-9, but not before Jonathan Hester had a beautiful backhand huck away and across the field, a la Steve Dugan, to Josh Wiseman to salvage another O point. We pulled back away and broke twice to win 15-11 on a goal from Mark Sherwood to Ashlin Joye.