Here's the recap of our first tournament at Indiana Wesleyan in Marion, IN.
Game One: Goon Squad (Huntington Alumni)
Our first game got off to a typical "Reaper Start" coming out of the gate flat quickly going down 0-2. Our O-Line eventually got us on the board and our D-Line brought us back to go up 3-2. The game went back and forth until Goon Squad took half 7-6. At half we discussed some of the mistakes we were making as well as how we needed to start getting ready to play. After half, we still seemed a little flat and eventually lost the game 13-10.
Our downfalls through the game were mainly defensive mishaps, such as poaching and not keeping the correct force. Our cutter motion was also looking a bit clogged and there was not really any off the line work happening. After the game, we made three points to our players:
1. Communication is key- we have to communicate with each other
2. NO POACHING
3. PUNISH on defense
For it being our first game, our rookies played extremely well while they were on the line!
Highlights:
KBreezy layout score
Kissel injury saga continues, Lore replaces him, gets sick ass INTIMIDDDDD right away
Game Two: Wash U
Coming off of a loss in our first game, our team was ready to get our first win of the season. We got out to a hot start going up 4-0, behind our new three step philosophy of communication, no poaching, and punishing defense. Our defense was something that really stood out to us as captains. We made Wash U work and we punished them for the mistakes they made. After we went up 4-0, Wash U threw a 3-man cup at us. Our rookies (who have no experience with a cup) played extremely well and we destroyed the Wash U cup. Our rookies got lots of playing time and made the most of their playing time. I can't stress how awesome our rookies played.
Final Score: W 12-9
Highlights:
Tyler caught a score in the middle of a crap ton of people
Kbreezy high release break to Lore, the wind took it, Lore bid for the catch, threw the score to Kluess
Caleb no look lefty backhand to Lovie for the score and FTW
Game Three: Taylor University
Our third game was probably the best game we played of Day One. Our rookies all got a lot of playing time and rose to the challenge. All of the rookies played exceptionally well. All of our rookies played great defense and worked our cutter motion to perfection. Rookie handlers James and Shawn did a great job working the handle motion and remembering all of the different nuances of our handler offense. Rookie cutters Ben, Tyler, and Djante worked the cutter motion very well and always found ways to get open.
We took half 7-2 and made it our goal to win the second half as well. Our team played a style of ultimate I've never seen from a Reaper team I've been a part of. Our offense was cool, calm, collected and basically Zen. We took our time, we weren't hyped, but we were focused. Our defense continued to punish Taylor, not allowing them to do anything they wanted to do on offense. We ended up winning the second half as well, ending the game with a 13-5 win.
Highlights:
Mass foot block by Djante where he kicked the disc about 50 yards out of bounds and into the woods followed by a Caleb huck to Rebecca for the score
Tyler layout D
All Rookie, Upwind break, FTW
Game Four: Ball State:
Our final game of the day came against Ball State. We came out strong against Ball State by throwing a veteran line zone in order to go up 6-3. Our Iowa zone punished Ball State (our defensive motto this weekend) and we took advantage of the field position that our zone provided us. After we went up 6-3 we got our rookies playing a majority of the points at probably a 4-3 rookie to veteran split. At that point, Ball State started playing their Universe Line in order to take half 7-6. At the half we told our players that we were proud of how everyone was playing and that even though we were tired, we had to keep grinding.
As captains, we made the decision to do the opposite of Ball State. We decided that we did not want to take points away from our rookies in order to put an all veteran line out on the field. We told our players that developing our young guys as well as continuing the development of our veterans is more important to us at our first tournament than throwing a Universe Line out for the entire second half like Ball State did. We took the game to hard cap at 9-8 with the chance to go to universe with the next point. After a hard fought battle, we came up a bit short, but we were happy we got everyone a lot of playing time and experience.
Final Score: L 10-8
Highlights:
Rookies destroying Ball State's zone
Ben faking an injury during the point to go to universe in order to get someone with fresh legs out there (he deserves a primetime Emmy)
DAY TWO
For Day Two, we made it a point to come out extremely hot and ready to play. I think we rose to the challenge.
Game One: Huntington Black Griffins
We got off to an okay start with the game at 3-3 after 6 points played. Our offense was playing well, but our defense needed to be reminded to punish. We needed an adjustment to help us play punishing defense and that's when Kissel came up with that adjustment. We began to force flick no matter where we were on the field. Huntington could not throw a flick and our defense began to smother them. Their guys started throwing thumbers and behind the back scoobers...so the adjustment definitely worked. Our rookies got a lot of playing time and were playing very well, especially on defense holding the force and forcing Huntington to throw the throws they are uncomfortable with. For our handlers, our off the line looks started getting a lot better.
"He didn't seem like he knew the rule, so I acted very confident that I did know the rule." - Kluess after pulling out of bounds that would have brought them to our own end zone corner.Because of the adjustments we made on defense and very solid offensive play, we finished the game on a 10-1 run winning by a final score of 13-4.
Highlights:
Lore going full beast mode with something like 4 bids and 3 D's on the same point.
Caleb got beat by a girl on a layout score, but then sky'd her (I'm pretty sure he leaped over her entirely)
Final point of the game: Caleb pulled out of bounds, Huntington's disc on our end zone (because Kluess wasn't there to mislead the guy on the rule), goal line D by Caleb, then a full field huck from Caleb to Kbreezy FTW.
Game Two: Oberlin-Y:
After a big win over Huntington, we were ready to get back on the field right away against Oberlin. It was extremely windy and was a great back and forth game. The key to this game was gaining a break against a strong cross-wind by throwing a zone against Oberlin. They had a difficult time breaking our zone, but at the same time we had a difficult time breaking their zone as well. Oberlin ran mainly out of a vert stack. We defended the vert extremely well by having force side and break side help as well as deep help. Eventually their vert stack became stagnant and they had to move into a ho stack.
Something we really took away from this game as captains was that we need to work on our marks a bit more at practice. Oberlin had some good throwers and they were able to break us far too often. Other than that, we played a solid game, especially our rookies who have little experience playing in that strong of a wind.
Final Score: W 9-7
Highlights:
Djante catching two *dime* hammers from Kissel
Solid play in the wind by our rookies
We ended the tournament in 10th place, which is a great start to our season. Caleb, Lore and I are extremely proud of how our team played this weekend, especially the young guys. I think I speak for my co-captains when I say that the rookies completely exceeded my expectations this weekend. If our rookies are this good now, just think about how good they'll be when the spring season begins. Our next tournament will be with the Women's team at ISU, then we're off to Glory Days. I'm excited to see how our team progresses through these two tournaments and then at ONU two weeks after ISU. That being said, congrats guys on a great tournament, lets keep working hard to continue improving and getting better as a team!
-Kyle Breen #37, Caleb Gurujal #12, Alex Lore #5
P.S. - You're telling me, that at dollar sushi night at KoFusion you can get ONE sushis for ONE dollar?! So what happens if you have FIVE dollars? How many sushis can you get? Yeah. FIVE sushis.
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