I recently made the 1hr or so drive from Madison to watch the Reaper boys at No Wisconsequences. Upon arriving I didn’t realize it would be 20mph winds with strong gusts and quite cold. Either way this meant I would be watching plenty of zone and lots of sloppy low-percentage offense. The second and third games on the day seemed to be newer teams and Reaper didn’t have a problem. Unfortunately I missed the first game vs. a split UNI team that was a relatively close game so sorry about the holes in this write-up ha.
It was great to see the whole team playing, lines were not that tight when I first arrived and everyone seemed to be contributing. We still tended to force the disc a bit too much; working the disc all the way up the field with some solid handler breaks and dump swings only to throw a same-third laser into the wind requiring a layout or other really tough grab happened a lot when I was watching early on. We need to chill out and trust our red zone offense a little more by… 1) using it more and 2) transitioning faster and 3) making the right decision.
I ended up picking up with Depaul’s team against Michigan Tech and got to experience how fun it was to play in the heavy wind first hand so I missed the game that ended with us beating a bunch of bare-foot guys in jeans to go 3-0 in our pool. Game 4 however was against a semi-familiar opponent, St. Olaf. We played these guys last year at Southerns day 2. They were a tall, loud, and intimidating team (since we only had 11 guys) that we ended up coming from behind to beat them by 3-4. The captains did a great job making it clear to the team that this was our game and would be a whole different animal then the teams we just played.
We came out fired up, loud on the sidelines, and aggressive on D and in the air. Everything went our way in the first half. Handlers struggled getting it off the trap-side which lead to low percentage looks that we seemed to EAT UP! Nate/OC/Mike showed off how far they could put it and it seemed to take St.Olaf by surprise because downfield our cutters owned the air. Brian had one of the best 2 handed skies I have ever seen him pull off early in the first half and Hinze seemed borderline unmarkable on deep cut after deep cut. Schwenk showed off just how versatile a player he has become with solid handles and monster deep looks to streaking cutters. Our offense was not pretty but it worked. In the spring better teams won’t be as easy to take down if we can’t dump/swing FASTER and move the disc more off the trap side. Handlers need to be more comfortable with some breakmark looks to center and also dump for a few yards loss to a swing to regain yards and move it to the non-trap side of the field. Our defense is what won us this game by such a wide margin. We took half 7-1 because we forced early turns real close to St.Olafs end zone consistently and when they did score it was off bailout hucks that most of the game we did a solid job of contesting and stopping. Sideline also did a great job this game, lines were certainly a bit tighter but for the first half we were loud, talking, and on the field after each point which was huge and absolutely awesome to see! St.Olaf didn’t come back and we continued to take care of business in the second half but sideline needs to remain loud throughout the whole game. I feel like we got complacent after taking half by such a large margin. We have had issues with teams very similar to St. Olaf coming back from behind in the past. Awesome way to end day 1. Other random notable things I remember from this game… St.Olaf sideline calling Mike a douche for spiking, Alex making a disgusting layout catch (late in the game I think?) and maintaining his record of getting injured basically every game, Kyle getting 2-3 pointblocks, and myself hitting an injured Rolando with the disc while trying to throw it back to field.
Day 2 opened with a team we have never faced but have seen at many tournaments, Winona State. The weather was actually quite beautiful for this game which allowed for some much cleaner ultimate. I believe we broke them first only to give up a few breaks in a row and go down by 1 or 2 at half. I really liked how our team was running very loosely structured O and D lines with OC anchoring the handles for the O line and HR/Mike/Nate basically play as much as they could but seemingly not exhausting themselves (yet). Both teams played a very similar game. Winona took a lot of deep shots to mis-matches and consistently found success working it up the break side early in the first half. However late in the game we were able to pull out a solid streak of 3-4 breaks to secure the win. I thought Rolando and Zach did a fantastic job taking whatever winona was giving them offensively. Early on we didn’t value the disc enough and settled for deep shots to easily, as the game progressed though we found a rhythm and out-worked them on D grinding out the win. Great opening game.
Game 2 was against Iowa X or Y… I feel like we opened with a strong 3 or 4 point run before IHUC scored. This game the wind had returned to a 10-15 mph crosswind. Iowa had a few strong handlers that seemed to run their offense but downfield our man D was limiting options all game long. Offensively we worked the under a little better this game and were patient with our deep shots. After we took half both teams seemed to go on 2-3 point runs. Old problems seemed to arise with handlers not moving the disc and depending too much on cutters making huge plays downfield. HR was one of the only guys consistently getting the disc moving off the line. Regardless of that though downfield our cutters WERE making huge plays. I think Lovie had the most ridiculous sky of this game with a left-handed snag after going up big in the endzone from a MJ Schwenk BOMB. Nate, OC, and HR did a great job leading the handles with awesome support from Alex, Traver, and Mike. Once hard cap sealed the deal IHUC ended the game with a Callahan, I finished my bottle of champaign, and Reaper moved to the quarterfinals to play Carleton College, the defending college champions.
Game 3 was… rather interesting. We have never played a team of Carleton’s caliber and didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think anyone could have foreseen how this game ended up being played. From what I remember the wind at this point was very strong 20+ with strong gusts blowing to the home sideline (crosswind favoring the far endzone). We ended up scoring our first O point in the semi-upwind-endzone to take the lead 1-0. Now I believe either 1 or 2 more points occurred but eventually with the score being around 2-1 Carleton’s lead they hucked a floaty backhand upwind that hung for enough time for Michael Schwenk to do what he does best and get absurdly high in the air and bring the disc down. Going up Mike didn’t touch anyone from my perspective, coming down there was both Reaper and Carleton players in a crowd that fell and apparently one of the smaller Carleton players, who I also believe was a captain got hit in the head and called injury. Mike had also happened to call foul because after he caught the disc and stopped rotation it ended up getting knocked lose when he came down. Carleton’s coach (or whoever the 6’4 guy was in jeans and a stat sheet) FLIPPED after this sky. He ran from the sideline onto the field and bumped mike all the while screaming at him about how that was such an insanely dangerous play. Mike did an amazing job keeping his composure while this ridiculous man was screaming, yelling, and honestly making a giant fool of himself and his team. Schwenk went up big for a disc that very well could have been caught otherwise for a break, it was a highlight reel defensive play yes, but it was far from overly dangerous. The fact that the Carleton guy got hit in the head and called injury (and was fine a few points later) was unfortunate and obviously an accident. Ultimate is not a contact sport in the same sense that football is but clearly there is a good amount of contact between players ESPECIALLY at higher level games. No team or coach would expect Mike to not go up and get that D and frankly the manner in which the Carleton coach reacted was one of the most unspirited acts I have ever seen in ANY sports situation especially coming from someone who is suppose to be leading his team. Anyway, back to the action. Both teams score a few more points. Then one of our rookies Nick I believe makes a semi-late bid that causes a Carleton player to fall and call foul. The bid WAS semi-late and it looked more awkward than dangerous. It was a late decision to lay out from a newer player who has a lot of potential and made the right choice, just appeared to hesitate a bit. Good teams expect their young guys to be hitting the ground and if not for the previous play I think this would have been a simple “foul” -> “no contest” situation; But because of the previous altercation with Mike both lines ended up rushing the field after Carleton’s NexGen player decides to chest up and basically shove Nick after the play. HR, myself, Mike and I am sure some of our other guys end up talking to various players on the team trying to avoid a brawl and actually get the game going. I am really proud of how well Mike and Nick acted after both of these plays, our guys kept cool heads regardless of how much a few of the Carleton players but mostly the Carleton Coach taunted and yelled. After those crazy events the game really started to heat up. We were mostly down two breaks the majority of the game with the wind really picking up towards the end. Carleton did a great job moving the disc off the line and we did a great job jamming it up the line. Defensively both teams looked solid, we did an excellent job with switches and when we were tight on the unders we had a lot of success. It has to be noted that Mike went off this game… I hyped up how good a few of the guys on Carleton were but honestly seeing Motherbird and the NexGen player on Carleton matchup was awesome to watch because frankly… Schwenk dominated. Mike set the tone early in the matchup with a massive layout D from behind on a downwind huck, had a filthy layout catch D from behind when the Carleton handler had 1 or 2 steps on him on a strike cut that had mike flying out of bounds with the disc in his hand and myself and whole sideline on the field next to us looking dumb with our jaws dropped. Both players seemed to run each team’s respective offense. With Reaper down 7-8, Nate caught the disc a little more than halfway up the field and launched a GORGEOUS 30-40 yard invert flick to a streaking cutter (I think it was Rolando) to send the game to universe point. I remember we forced at least 1 turn and had a huck to the endzone that didn’t pan out before Carleton did what they are known for, methodically working it up the breakside to the endzone via strong under cuts. They earned the win and advanced to the semi’s. This game was one of the most entertaining, ridiculous, funny, and awesome games I have ever watched.
5th/7th place game… we were up, then we were down, I got skied a lot. Our defense sucked and they burned us force side… over and over. 7-9 loss I think. Bummer.
It was awesome to get to watch you guys play so well. Honestly the team had many moments where I thought you guys looked better than we did last year in the fall. I think EVERY single player that wasn’t necessarily a starter last year showed a great deal of improvement and are really doing an awesome job keeping the team strong. At the same team look at the weaknesses in our team game, we have always liked to huck the disc but right now we seem to live or die on those deep shots which can be very dangerous come spring, our handles need to move the disc faster and our cutters need to work on flow and clearing out. You should know when and where to clear and when and where to cut, the less time you are standing still as a cutter the better. The fall is over now though and the spring is what counts. Everyone needs to understand and be on the same page with what the goals of the team are and what you are going to do to help the team fulfill that goal. Recognize what we were bad at and what we were good at and work on BOTH. Make individual goals to become a better player for yourself and your teammates. Think of what you need to work on this winter. Can you throw a continuation upwind? Do you get broken a lot? Do you need to move the disc faster, or look swing sooner if the disc is on the line? ETC ETC, be proud of how well you guys are playing and of the team you are on, it’s awesome seeing you guys continue the success we have had the last few years. Take conditioning seriously now because the harder you work and the harder you push yourself now shows come spring time. I don’t want to see us lose like we did at Regionals to Northwestern because our legs failed us. This team can be better than that team if you guys are willing to put in the effort now! Fear the Reaper.
#2
No comments:
Post a Comment