Pool Play Wrap Up

My god, as I write this I know it's gonna be a long one. The last 12 hours have been pretty epic and I did my best to cover as much disc as possible. Here is what I got.

Weather

First off, the weather here has been pretty crazy. At times it was as hot as Columbus with still air that made your skin scream in agony. At others, the wind picked up and you were graced with cloud cover that made it somewhat ok that you hadn't greased up since round 2. All in all however, teams seemed to be more or less indifferent to the weather and considering that there were only 3 games today, bodies weren't too torched.

Round 1 - Michigan (13) vs Georgia (15)

This game was all it was cracked up to be. The two superstars from Magnum (Neff and Purcell) were set out to face the Red and White army from Athens. Georgia's depth was something that really blew my mind today and their defensive ability was something I could have expected but was still nothing short of spectacular.

Very early in this game it was obvious that both team had the jitters. The first point was filled with throw aways and drops and it was obvious that Michigan knew they were a 1 seed for the first time and Georgia had Dylan Tunnell but he was wearing sweatpants and tennis shoes. Georgia started out on D and with repeated opportunities for both teams, Georgia got the early break. When Michigan had the disc it was very obvious that Will Neff was a threat they were afraid of. Purcell and Will are both incredible at organizing an offense and Alex Deckard (one of Georgia's coaches) told me that they wanted to keep them downfield. Will's hucks are incredible and when Purcell has the disc it is very easy for him to launch it to Will for an easy score. In putting pressure on Magnum's other offensive personel to put up the bomb (ie Ollie Hondred) Michigan's hucks were less than perfect and Jojah veterans like Ben Morrissey, Peter Dempsey and freshman Charlie Herrig reeled in D's.

For the first 10-12 points, Georgia enjoyed a two break lead. Ryan Purcell had a tough time getting into his offensive flow and was hand blocked more than a few times and put up throws he immediately wished he could take back. However, with the experience that #1 brings to the game, Will took over on both O and D. In the air he is probably up there as one of the top 3-4 players in the country. What makes him even more spectacular is that he isn't all that flashy and is one of the those every 3-4 throw kinda guys that makes good decision after good decision. Outside of Will and the lefty, sophomore Patrick Collins and senior Dave Fumo made their presence felt offensively and really got Michigan's offense back on track with 3 straight scores on a few great deep bombs from Will and Ollie to take half 8-7.

In the second half the D that had been the saving grace for Georgia in the series would show up again. Greg Swanson lined up on Will and despite his glass like tendencies, he didn't buckle and he kept Neff just out of his element and forced him to go for tougher options like his famous hammer, but even with the best hammers, you are going to turf one or two eventually. As points were traded, it seemed Purcell could feel the pressure and struggled down the stretch. He was hand blocked again in the second half and that is something that really seemed to rattle him. Will had more than enough on his plate and at this point Georgia's D really turned it up a notch.

At 12-12 I knew the game was going to come down to composure and one of my favorite Georgia players, Will McDonough stepped out onto the line and I knew that this senior was going to come up big. Georgia pulls and Will comes up with a huge poach D and then turns and burns for the house. Swanson picks up and launches and huge huck to the 5'9" speedster and as if he had done it a 1,000 times, snatches a huge sky score to put Georgia up 13-12.

Michigan would answer back with another spectacular sky score from Patrick Collins but at 13's Magnum could not keep a lid on Georgia's momentum and the Dawgs put the 1 seed away in a spectacular 15-13 showdown. This would be Georgia's 4th year in row in pool D, 2nd as the 3 seed. Last year they got pwned by Stanford in Round 1 but today it was all Jojah. I caught up with them after the game and asked them about their seed this year and despite my hope to have them be #6, they seemed to be very happy with #9. Apparently being under the radar has been excellent for them this year and despite some criticism, they are one of the best peaking teams in the country.

Outside this game, there was a nexus of spectacular ultimate happening all around me. On the field behind me Stanford was taking Wisconsin down to the wire 15-13 and on the adjacent field, Harvard stunned Texas with a miraculous double game point victory. Stanford came out fired up wanting the chance to take it to Goliath. Ryan Thompson (Stanford) told me they were extremely amped to play and gave it everything they had, something that would haunt them in round 2 against Arizona. Red Line lead most of the game and despite some poor decisions by their elite freshman tag team of George Stubbs and Andrew Vogt, they got it together and lead their veteran line to glory.

Round 2 - Arizona (15) vs Stanford (12)

After the first round craziness I headed over to the showcase fields to check out the 2008 Cinderella Story, Sunburn, face off against a team that had just taken the 2 seed to the brink of defeat.

At the outset it was very obvious that Sherwood was absolutely gassed. He had just played an epic game and it was clear that for the first half he was taking it easy. However, in his absence Tom James, who I have been waiting for all year to blow my hair back, stepped up huge. His backhand huck was spectacular despite the steady increase in wind and Nick Schlag and Ezra Schiff really took control of the offense. However, Arizona came to ball and they did not disappoint me or the Southwest.

The first thing I want to say about Arizona is that they are really a dynamic team. Several of their players have had their turn in the spot light with Chris Shepard's scoober, Erik Gafni's deep threat heroics and Loppi's flare. However, one player that has been consistent from Vegas to Southwest Regionals has been Austin Gregersen. Degs picked him for his SW All-Region team along with Kershner and when I talked to Chris Shepard after the game he said Austin was their best player but he is so humble. Not only is #8 a gigantic 6'5" deep threat and defender, he is also a fantastic handler with endless composure and his flick is right up their with Muffin's and Kurt Gibson's.

In any event, the first half was basically on serve. Arizona was trying to stack their lines early to handle fresh Stanford legs, but as the half wore on, they opened up their lines and let Stanford's major players exhaust themselves. Arizona mixed things up a lot with Austin and Scharf cutting with Gafni back handling. They stuck mainly with O and D line sets and despite their season long propensity to go for the upside down puts, they were composed in the wind and on the goal line and managed to maintain possession in the face of staunch Stanford defenders like Derek Frome and Ben Kengisberg. Arizona took half 8-7 and after watching Sherwood rest on and off the field by poaching and avoiding tough matchups I was curious to know what the second half would bring.

As Arizona pulled to start the second half, the wind really began to pick up in the late morning/early afternoon. After having opened the lines for the middle 1/3rd of the game, Arizona was now ready to go for the throat and stuck with their main weapons. Sherwood was weary of the deep threat and consistently gave up underneath cuts which allowed Gregersen to send upwind hucks to Gafni and Kershner and despite a few injury bids by a variety of Arizona player, they looked to step on the gas.

Sherwood had a great sky over Kershner to make it 10-8 but that would be the end of Stanford's success. Arizona converted on a few Stanford miscues in the wind and an upwind break quickly turned into a second break for Sunburn. At 11-9 Sherwood coughed it up on his own endzone and before he knew it, he was walking to the other side line down 12-9. Stanford would answer with a few spectacular hucks to Steve Scardato, but it was too little to late and Arizona's fire would not be denied. Their intensity and experience was amazing to watch and they reminded me of UCSD in our hayday back in '03-'05. No coach, a ton of veterans, and just more spittle than you could shake a stick at. I talked with Shepard after the game and when I asked him about the 4 injury calls they made (Shepard x2, Kershner, and Austin) he just told me that they came to play and were not going to leave anything on the field.

Outside this game, North Texas turned some heads and took out the 2 seed in their pool, Illinois. I spoke with Brodie Smith (Florida) after Florida fought off UNT 15-10 and he told me that they were going to be trouble for a lot of teams. They took Florida to an 8-7 half and K-Rich and the rest of the Eagles did their part coming out second in their pool. Great work.

Round 3

Round 3 was a bit crazy. I started things off watching Santa Cruz and Carleton and despite my hopes for DLK, CUT really made things tough for the Slugs. Sam Roberts is a spectacular all around player with great offensive presence and the ability to snag D's when/if CUT turns it over. Christian Foster's pulls are also something I have a tough time wrapping my brain around and Alex Evangelides speed on D made life difficult for Santa Cruz's deep game. In addition, Kanner, Potter, Fadin, Lindsley, Baylis and the rest of CUT just came to play and the only thing more prominent than their obvious intensity and focus was that stupid cow bell they kept ringing. Anyway, Santa Cruz seemed flustered and despite valiant efforts, had a tough time setting up their offense and could not play their game very well. At 8-3 I started to wonder.

Next to their field was Florida vs Illinois and the only thing I can say about Florida is that they really only play well when they want to. Both UNT and Illinois played great first halves against the gators and it really seems like they phone it in some times. Pavan Sarguru (Illinois) really lined up well with Brodie Smith and took quite a few discs away from Florida's offense. However, Gibson, Chris, not Kurt, had a great game with several hucks thrown to him and he did a great job of boxing out his defender and making his brother proud. Kurt was his usual self. Absolutely unstoppable deep and never hesitant to let his team mates know when they screwed up. Another name that doesn't get mentioned much for Florida but who also played great defense when Florida's O phoned it in was Dustin Travaglini.

Towards the end of the round I found myself back over at the pool of (D)eath where Georgia and Texas were duking it out. When I got there the game was already close, tied at 11's. Not soon after I got there, I saw arguably the best defender in the country, Peter Dempsey (Georgia), take over for Jojah's D-line. Texas was working their dump swing back and forth across the field when #11 came out with a HUGE layout D, followed by a bolt to the house for a double happiness sky to take the lead. Texas would rally on the back of Stephen "Franchise" Pressley and despite his endless legs and ability to reset the offense and make strikes downfield, Texas could not convert down the stretch. Chase Hudson (Texas) played a great game with one deep score after another but on game point, Peter Dempsey again showed why he is such a valuable asset for Georgia and got himself another layout D and Georgia gave Texas their second loss of the day, 16-14.

Round 4/4.5
Because seedings were fairly crazy due to the parity associated with 2008, a lot of the 1 vs 2 games were not all that good. It was pretty clear that Florida, Wisconsin, and Colorado are in a class all their own and when looking at their last game of the day results, it should be pretty obvious to you as well. The Wisconsin vs Arizona rematch went as I expected with Wisconsin coming out red hot. James Foster, who does not get enough attention, played a fantastic deep game along side a "playing" but significantly limited Drew Mahowald, coming off a knee injury. Will Lokke played a great game with his fair share of deep scores and Shane was his usual dominate defensive self with a Callahan late in the first half. I took off at half time to go check out Colorado vs CUT which wasn't much better.

When I got over to the showcase fields the score was already 5-2 and after a few additional scores by Colorado it was obvious that CUT had no deep game against MB's endless lines of 6 foot studs. At 7-2, Hlyke Sneider got a big deep D and dished it to Jolian who sent a huge backhand bomb to Martin Cochran. While waiting for the disc to come down a few CUT players assembled in the end zone and out of nowhere Brian Clarkson (Colorado) skies the pile to take half in front of a huge Colorado crowd. Needless to say CUT was shattered and Colorado seemed like they would take their pool AGAIN.

I wandered back over to pool D once again and this is when the day truly climaxed (sorry, I know I am wordy but it was awesome). Texas vs Michigan and Georgia vs Harvard were side by side and each team was duking it out to see who would take the pool, who would make pre-quarters and who was out of contention. Georgia and Harvard were much farther along and when I showed up Georgia had a 2 goal lead 11-9. Apparently Peter Dempsey had a hamstring injury and sat out at 9-6, at which point Georgia felt they were in control. However, George Stubbs, Zirui, Andrew Vogt, Phil Roebuck, and Dave Lipson would have other plans.

Harvard was down 12-10 but took advantage of Georgia mental miscues and tied it at 13's. Georgia's offense seemed a bit flustered and Harvard's Obi Ugwu-Oju (yeah I can't pronounce it either) came up with a great heads up D which allowed Harvard to get a break followed by another score off of a hammer score to Obi from Phil. Stubbs and Vogt lead the Harvard D-line and kept pressure on Swanson and the rest of Jojah's O-line to convert. In the end Jojah's freshman Charlie Herrig had a fantastic game with a game saving D and catch to send Georgia to the one spot out of pool D for the first time in their history.

The Michigan vs Texas game was offset by 30 min and was at 11-7 when I came by. I went over to talk to Skip Sewell (seattle sockeye) who was a Texas Alum ('00) and former coach and that is when things got interesting. Magnum and TUFF traded points but then Franchise began to will his team back into the game. Texas rattled off 7 goals to only 3 by Michigan and suddenly a game that seemed out of reach was tied at 14's.

Rather than have this game end quickly, each point seemed like one marathon after another with endless turnovers by both sides. There was one moment of light when a Texas D followed by a cross field hammer ended up with a TUFF player with the disc staring at a wide open cutter in the endzone for a 15 yard score. He lets go of the back hand despite bulging eyes from the crowd behind the endzone because unbeknownst to this poor Texas player, Michigan Senior Dave Fumo was just about to come out of nowhere for a chest high, game changing, gut wrenching, crowd pleasing, earth shattering layout D. The disc sailed 20 yards into the neighboring field where Georgia had just put down Harvard. Just when we thought Texas was pulling away, Michigan hit the reset button.

After a few throws a huck from Ollie Honderd went deep to a streaking Will Neff. This disc was a lazer headed straight for the grass but the 6'5" Neff made a huge diving grab and raised his white prize to the sky resulting in thunderous applause from the crowd. The Northeast legend had done it again. All he had to do was do it again.

But Texas would have other plans. They came back with a vengence and Jeff Loskorn (Texas) who had the poor duty of gaurding and getting owned by Will previously, took Neff deep for a great sky goal to bring the game one step closer to double game point. After scores were traded Texas was receiving at 16's, hard cap blown, the whole crowd has outlined the field. This is nationals, it's DGP, there is no sideline, there is just green and then flesh.

Franchise is in control, he is working the offense and standing on the sideline was Harvard's Coach, Josh McCarthy. This guy is the craziest coach I have ever seen, and he is going nuts because if Texas wins, they go 1-2 along with Harvard but because of point differential, Texas takes 3rd in the pool sending Harvard to consolation. If Texas turns it and loses, Harvard is 1-2, and Texas is 0-3. The pressure is mounting, each team knows the stakes.

However, despite Franchise's efforts an errant throw results in a Texas turn and Michigan works it up to put in the final score. It was a less than exciting possession but after all the excitement of Pool D, more excitement would have given me a heart attack.

After the game I spoke with Dave Fumo and Will Neff. I asked Dave where he got the energy to outlast Texas and all he had to say was "We have worked so hard this year and when you don't think you have anything left, you just have to will yourself to win. I don't know where it came from but we just pulled through". Great work Dave, my opinion doesn't matter, but we are all supremely impressed.

I only had a few questions for Will, mainly, what was it like to play elite college after playing elite club? "It's bizarre because there is a lot more pressure on me in college to make the play as opposed to club where I just need to do what I can and not turn it over. It is an experience that is difficult but it is something I am glad to have". Will continues to impress me both as a player and leader and I have really enjoyed watching him take Michigan to a whole new level.

Closing Thoughts
Its 10:45pm. I am exhausted and hungry but I have finished my first entry. I am going for Jack in Box and beer. More to follow.

match diesel