Open Final
Sockeye vs. Furious George
Story by Alex Masulis

Sockeye has played Furious seven times already this year and they were 6-0 against the Monkey before losing in the final of Northwest Regionals. Sockeye's Sam C-K applauds Furious' strategy of playing their young players as much as possible early in the season, even if it means losing big games. "Also, it means we don't see them at full strength until the key part of the season," said C-K, "and they seem to always peak at the right time." After last year's jersey fiasco where Sockeye lost the flip and had to wear their hated whites in the finals against Furious (former and future Sockeye player Phil Burkhardt told me certain players were actually psyched out by having to wear jerseys that were "unattractive"), the Fish decided to get red and black jerseys this year so no option would be a "bad" one. This year both teams get their preferred colors, as Sockeye comes out in black and Furious in red.

Sockeye pulls upwind to Furious to start the game and a few of their O players start on D. Nord is playing D on Cruikshank: an interesting (and I think good) decision. After a few calls, Lugsdin eventually hits Neil Terry with a blading flick for the first score. Sockeye receive and Wiggins hucks to Mike Caldwell immediately, who brings it down and threads in a short pass to Moses for the goal. The point took about thirty seconds. The next point Sockeye mixes it up and brings a zone transition, but Furious waits out the zone and Ortiz hucks long to Lugsdin (a foul call is upheld by the observer in Lugsdin's favor) and Luggy hits Kubalanza for the goal. Sockeye uses the same offensive strategy on their next point, getting the disc to Wiggins who immediately jacks a 70 yard flick to Sam C-K. After a foul call and a dropped pass, C-K gets another huck and catches this one before hitting Danny Trytiak for the easy goal. Cruikshank hits Kubalanza for the next score and it's 3-2 Furious. Furious brings their clam D the next point and forces Sockeye to actually work the disc with short passes. But Sockeye's horizontal offense keeps the disc after a questionable foul call is upheld by the observer and O'Brien hits MC for the equalizer. "That was a sketchy call," says Mike Baccarini with a skeptical eye. Nord has switched to guarding Kubalanza probably to keep Furious from hucking to him deep, so Furious huck to Kirk Savage instead and he throws a give and go with Al Nichols for the goal. Crafts hits a laying O'Brien with a backhand basically through his mark and it's 4-4. There have been eight points so far and zero turnovers. Jeremy Cram pulls 80 yards upwind on the next point and Sockeye has the Monkey trapped in their own endzone for a while. "Cram was the MVP of our semis matchup yesterday," says Kyle Weisbrod. "His pulls were going 20-30 yards further upwind than any guy on our team could throw and I really think that was the difference in a very windy game." Furious throws the first turnover on a huck that's inches long of a diving Cruikshank and Matt "Skippy" Sewell goes out of the game after a big layout ends with what looks to be a hurt shoulder. Sockeye picks up the disc and Wiggins launches a huge flick to Cram for the first break and Sockeye leads 5-4. Furious goes upwind on the next point and Cruikshank hits Lugsdin with an I-O backhand for the goal. On the next point a Dave Bestock throw is floating out of bounds before MC completes a sweet greatest to Moses for the crowd-pleasing goal. Cruikshank rockets a lefty flick up the line to Kubalanza for the next goal and it's tied at 6-6. Wiggins hucks a flick upwind that drifts over CK and his man before Chase picks up the trash for the goal. Jaeger gets a D on a Cruikshank huck on the next point and Roger launches a backhand to Nord, who lands a foot or two outside of the endzone. Nord doesn't have many options and doesn't appear to want to call a timeout so at a high stall count he launches a hammer across the field to Skippy, who jumps against Kubalanza. As the disc bounces out of Skippy's hands and he falls to the ground, the disc unbelievably lands on his leg. Skippy reaches out and picks the disc off his leg for the ridiculous goal and it's halftime, 8-6 Sockeye. "We're going to just keep doing what we've been doing," said Sam O'Brien at halftime, "but with more energy and more D-blocks."

Furious pulls upwind to start the half and Sockeye's offense coughs up the disc for the first time all game. Mike Grant hits Seraglia with an I-O flick past a fully laid-out Chase, and it's 7-8 with Sockeye in the lead. Moses drops a flick over the top to Sammy C-K for the next goal and Furious responds with a floaty throw from Kubalanza that barely gets over Will Fleming to hit Neil Terry for a Monkey goal. Chase throws a low flick to Bestock for the next score and Sockeye leads 10-8. On the next point Jimmy Chu lays out against Kubalanza on an in-cut and the players appear to catch the disc almost simultaneously. The observer rules it an offensive possession and Furious swings the disc around for almost five minutes without finding anything open upfield before Skip gets a layout D. Jimmy Chu rushes to the disc and launches a flick to former Carleton teammate Chase Sparling-Beckley for the big goal. Sockeye has been marking almost completely straight-up when Furious is going upwind and their D is looking really strong. Furious' offense hasn't had to work hard all weekend and you have to wonder whether the lack of a test earlier in the tournament is hurting them now. Going downwind they look unsurprisingly stronger and Mike Grant throws a high backhand to Lugsdin to get within two again. Furious pulls and Allan Cowan gets a quick D on the goal line before hitting Grant for the upwinder. It's Furious 10, Sockeye 11. Sockeye's O is going upwind again and O'Brien hits Caldwell up the backhand line for the goal. On the next point, Furious overthrows a receiver and Sockeye gets the disc to Cram who rockets a flick into the endzone that looks to be overthrown. But Chase is sprinting full speed towards the disc and after an immense layout, he barely grabs the disc with his fingertips for the defensive break. Furious responds with a huck from Mauro Ortiz to Marc Roberts in traffic that's caught after a mack. Then Seraglia gets a D on a misthrown pass and Al Nichols finds Mike Enns in the corner of the endzone to bring the game within one. Sockeye replies with a flick from O'Brien to Moses and it's 14-12, game-point Sockeye. A cross-field Furious hammer is D'd by Cram and after a few swing passes, Roger Crafts calls a timeout. Oscar gets a foot-block on Crafts after the timeout but Skippy gets the disc back for Sockeye after he pones two Furious players in the air. After a few passes, Sockeye gives the disc up again and Cruikshank hits Ortiz with a short backhand for the goal. It's the first point of the entire game with more than one turnover. On the final point, Sockeye's O team marches the disc up the field with lots of short passes before throwing the disc away into the endzone. Furious overthrow Maley in the endzone and all of a sudden both teams seem to be tightening up. Sockeye works the disc for a few passes before MC hucks a huge backhand that Sam C-K grabs over two Furious defenders a few yards out of the endzone. After two foul calls on the mark, C-K hits Moses for the game-winner and Sockeye win a great finals15-13.
posted on 10/29/2006 08:28:00 PM

Open Day 3
Story by Alex Masulis
Images by Jason Mechler

Quarterfinals:
Saturday starts overcast and damp, with the scent of last night's heavy rains still in the air. It's just as windy and as the last round on Friday but the wind's completely changed direction and it's more erratic today, causing more turnovers and giving most throwers something to think about.

Revolver vs. Chain:
Revolver starts in their vertical stack offense (I know I said it was a horizontal earlier, but it's really a vertical with a fairly flat handler set and cutters who clear out to the sides of the field, giving it the occasional appearance of a horizontal O) and Chain starts is running their same spread. Neither team is bringing zone on defense even in the heavy wind, preferring to battle it out on one-on-one match-ups. Revolver gets the first break of the game to go up 4-2 and early on Chain doesn't look willing to work it slowly upwind, instead looking to Dylan on some questionable hucks that aren't connecting as much as they need to. Revolver is looking strong and goes up another break before reaching a 7-3 lead and even has the disc going downwind to take half. Chain hits Josh Marquette for an upwinder and briefly has some signs of life, but Revolver quickly squashes the Chain cheers with an upwinder of their own, taking half 8-4. When asked what strategic planning went into the game, Revolver's Yo reveals that the bay area team did some homework. "We've been forcing them straight up because we know they like to huck to a few key players who are really strong in the air," said Yo, "and we're trying to force them to throw flick dumps into the wind. That's forced two turnovers already." "We've had some brain farts but I also have to give them credit," says Chain's Dylan Tunnell. "They're playing really well so far. But there's a lot of game left to go." Chain comes out of halftime fired up and ready to prove Dylan right, scoring downwind and then capitalizing on a Revolver turnover to break upwind on a pass from Dylan to Rob Barrett. In the next point, Jason Simpson gets a huge layout D and John "Kid" Hammond scores Chain's third straight goal. Revolver stops the Chain run at three and the teams trade points to 11-10, Revolver. Then, after a long, multi-turnover point, Chain gets a key break on a perfect 50 yard upwind backhand from Kid to Dylan. After a Revolver turnover the next point, AJ hucks downwind to Kid for the goal and Chain takes the lead at 12-11. All tournament Chain has shown a remarkable knack to get upwind breaks at the most integral junctures late in games, and this appears to be no exception. They get yet another upwind break the next point and the energy on the Chain sideline is electric. But Revolver marches methodically upwind and Nick Handler hits Mike Payne to make it 12-13. The next two points are upwind offensive scores and Chain leads 14-13. Chain loses the disc on a contested call overruled by the observer in the next point but gets the disc back after an absurd D by Barrett. After another three turnovers, Revolver eventually scores downwind to tie the game at 14s. The cap has gone off at this point and it's a game to 16. Chain receives the pull and is content to huck and play D in the heavy wind. The strategy pays off and they quickly get the disc back and Jay Hammond rockets a 40 yard hammer into the end zone, picking out Grant Lindsley for the score. In the final point, Chain gets a D on a floaty Revolver huck and fittingly hits Kid for the winning goal.

Sockeye v. DoG
Sockeye starts on D and breaks DoG on the first point of the game after Will Fleming lays out for a trailing edge D on Zip, and the fish break again soon after that to go up 4-1. Sockeye is poaching heavily in the lanes close to the disc, probably because they know DoG's offense doesn't like to take deep chances on hucks, preferring to work it up the field with more dependable under-cuts. By poaching lanes in the middle of the field and overplaying DoG's handlers late in the count, they're effectively cutting of many of DoG's easy looks upfield. DoG is struggling against this D and everything is going Sockeye's way, like it often seems to do when a team is rolling. The fish are hucking wildly and bringing everything down and they take half 8-3. "Jaeger and Idaho are anchoring our D team" states Sam O'Brien as Sockeye goes up 1-5, "and they're doing a sweet job. I don't see DoG coming back in this one." O'Brien's superstitious Irish background demanded that he knock on wood after such a statement, but sadly none was available in the middle of a Floridian polo ground. Accordingly, DoG's comeback started moments later as they capitalized on a bevy of Sockeye turnovers and BVH made a crowd-pleasing layout to set up an upwind goal. "We tend to get complacent when we're up 8-3," lamented Chase as DoG hucked to Colin Mahoney to make it 9-11. "It's not our best quality." Sockeye turns the disc twice near their own end zone in the next point and DoG punishes the error with an I-O flick to Steve Kolthammer for the goal. The next point is absolutely key and Sockeye has to stop the bleeding if they still want to win this game. They work it upwind and O'Brien eventually finds Moses Rifkin in the end zone for the score. Sockeye gets the D in the next point and jams it into Nord for the backbreaker. The DoG run is over. The teams trade downwinders to 14-12 and after a fish D, Sockeye's Ryan Winkelmann catches the game winner. The fish are going to semis and DoG's season, after a good run, is over.

Rhino vs. Johnny Bravo:
Rhino and Bravo both seem to have ample answers for the blustery 20+ mph winds, each scoring a break early on their way to a 4-4 tie. Going downwind, Bravo is usually just giving the disc to Parker, who hucks full field to Beau, often successfully. After Rhino works it 60 yards downfield, they throw the disc away on an ill-advised strike to the end zone and Bravo hucks to Josh Ackley for their second break and a 5-4 lead. But on the next point, Rhino goes upwind and Seth Wiggins hits Linkfield with a wicked I-O flick for the goal. Bravo's D team is yelling at each other on the sidelines but it seems that they're feeding off the anger as they rattle of three straight goals to take half 8-5. "We're just playing stifling man defense," explains Hector at halftime. "The game's getting contentious and I predict that Linkfield's gonna go off in the second half. But I'm confident we'll hold onto the lead and win this one." In the second half, Rouisse and Krug's downwind hucks continue to connect and the teams trade offensive points to 10-7. Late in the game, Rhino almost mounts a comeback, but both Deaver and Beau get layout D's on the end zone line to save Rhino goals and Bravo wins 15-11. "Our O gave up the disc a few times," said Bravo's Deaver, "but they weren't able to break us in the 2nd half." Bravo move onto semis (proving my prediction incorrect) and will face Sockeye later in the afternoon.

Furious vs. Ring of Fire:
Furious and Ring trade downwinders for the first two points of the game but Furious breaks upwind for a 2-1 lead after a long, contentious point. Individual tempers are showing early in this one, but surprisingly Ring doesn't look like they're getting pumped up from the arguments, and they look like they're still in the process of waking up. Normally excellent Ring players are misreading hucks and Furious just isn't a team you can give the disc to repeatedly and still expect to beat. Furious rolls to a 8-3 halftime lead and still looks hungry for more. They're yelling on the sidelines and keeping their D lines intense, which is often difficult to do when you're up big in a game. "They're fronting everyone on D and they're just gonna keep doing it until someone proves they can go over the top," says Ring's Alex Hartwiger. "They have some amazing throwers and that's just been the difference so far in this wind." To their credit, Ring doesn't give up in the second half and Hinkle launches some downwind hucks to Ray Parrish for goals, but Ring just doesn't look like they can consistently get D's on Furious or score upwind. Furious cruise to a 15-9 win as Cruikshank catches the final goal.

Semifinals:
Furious vs. Chain:
The controversy starts even before the game does in this one, as Furious complain about the poor quality of the field while so many better ones are right nearby. Eventually, the 5/6 game's field is commandeered for the semis and the game begins about ten minutes late. Chain's AJ scores the first goal going downwind and it's the last score that Chain will see for some time. Al Nichols opens the scoring for Furious on a downwinder and after a quick Chain turnover, Seraglia hits Anthony Maley with a giant upwind backhand, who turns and punches in a short throw for the 2-1 lead. Furious "completes" the break on the next point with a high backhand, again from Maley. Furious is forcing Chain to make difficult throws they don't really want to make and Chain is obligingly coughing up the disc. Mike Grant hits a wide open receiver for another upwind break and it's already starting to look like a runaway game. "Somebody give that guy a suitcase" mutters a Chain player on the sideline as Maley's pivot wanders during the next point, but Furious knocks in another goal for a 5-1 lead. Chain is making the classic mistakes of a mentally rattled team, looking off open receivers early in the stall count only to be left with no good options when Furious' defenders tighten up on the dumps and poach into the obvious lanes as the stall nears ten. Chain finally breaks the stampede and scores an upwinder of their own from the younger Hammond to the elder. But Furious is unimpressed and immediately gets another upwinder on a throw from Kubalanza to Ortiz. Chain's George Stubbs manages to bring down a bobbled huck for another Chain goal before Furious takes half 8-3. Chain misses out on a great chance to break upwind to start the second half as a Chain receiver drops a two handed catch in the end zone and Furious immediately punishes this error by hucking a full field shot to Cruikshank to go up 9-3.Furious is clearly running set plays off the pull with their lethal horizontal offense, but they're doing a good job of mixing up both the plays and the personnel involved and Chain can't get a handle on how to stop them. Ortiz and Cruikshank seem relatively unaffected by the blustery winds and continually pick out receivers thirty and more yards away for difficult shots that look easy. They cruise again, this time to a 15-7 victory.

Sockeye vs. Bravo:
Sockeye scores the first point going downwind quickly while Bravo takes three possessions before they finally score on a floaty huck from Rouisse to Mitch Schminke. On the next point Bravo gets a D on a bobbled catch and work the disc up the flick side until Matty Lipscomb hits Ackley for the upwind goal. Bravo quickly get the downwinder and after Sockeye turns over an easy throw into the end zone, Bravo goes 70 yards upwind and hit Ackley again to break Sockeye for the 4-1 lead. The next point is key for Sockeye, because there O has to score upwind or else they'll face a serious 4 point deficit and a completely fired up Bravo team. Sockeye works the disc all the way upfield twice before Cram finally hits Sammy CK for Sockeye's first upwinder. Sighs of relief are heard on the fish sideline as Sockeye complete the break with a layout D and a pass from Skip to Andrew Fleming makes it 3-4. Sockeye pulls upwind, gets a D, and Roger Crafts launches a huge backhand that Nord poster-izes someone for, but it's called back on a travel call. Sockeye goes more conservative and works it up with some under cuts before Cram hits Roger in the end zone to tie the game at 4s. During the next point Rouisse hucks a perfect 60 yard backhand to Beau and CK drops a bomb to Ray Illian to continue the run of upwinders. Interestingly, both squads are running man defense even when the other team is going upwind. Chase gets a D on an overthrown Bravo huck but after a long, very contentious point with a ton of calls, Beau catches a disc that floats into the end zone after Nord lays out to D it and Bravo is up 6-5. "This game's going to be like this but we can handle it," yells Mark "Stony" Stone encouragingly on the Sockeye sideline after two observer calls go against the fish. "We have to fight through the calls!" Chase skies through a pile of players for a floaty huck upwind and puts into Moses for the 6-6 tie. After a Stony D during the next point, Cram hits a wide open Nord with an easy flick and Sockeye leads 7-6. The next point Sockeye comes down in their first zone of the game and the strategery pays off. They force a floaty swing on a high stall count and Chase pones two Bravo players for the D, then swings the disc to Will who rips a flick to Nord for the 8-6 halftime break.Sockeye comes out in a man defense to start the second half although Bravo turns it once and almost throws it away three more times, a sweet layout D by Jolian Dahl gets the disc back for Bravo and Parker threads in a low I-O backhand for a goal. Bravo gets the disc on the next point after a Sockeye turnover and works it to the upwind goal line before Chase saves a break with a big layout D. Wilmer Wilson gets his own layout D but the fish eventually regain possession and score on a big Wiggins flick to Moses. It's 9-7 Sockeye and the first 2 points after half have taken 20 minutes. Bravo hucks it away but get the disc back on a poach block and score to make it 8-9. Roger skies for an absolutely absurd catch in the next point and the crowd erupts into applause. But Bravo isn't done yet and Rouisse responds by ripping a huge backhand, hitting a sprinting receiver in stride for the goal. Sockeye scores the next O point easily, pulls upwind and Skip gets a full-extension layout D on the first Bravo swing, sprints to the end zone for the goal and 12-9 Sockeye lead. This late in the game, it's a huge upwind break and it looks like Skip may have brought Sockeye much closer to victory. Sockeye pulls downwind and comes down in a zone, quickly forcing a turnover and Crockford lobs a push pass to Sebby for the goal. After two quick turnovers, Bravo's #15 (his name isn't in the event guide for some reason) lays out for a difficult blade catch to make it 10-13. Sockeye fails to connect on the next point and Bravo goes 70 yds upwind before hitting Ackley for the big defensive break. A Cram flick into the end zone on the next point glances off Bestock's hand and Bravo immediately hucks to Beau for the downwinder. The crowd is hushed as the game tightens up again. Roger hits Chase with a short I-O flick to make it 14-12, game to 16 (the cap horn blew during the point). Rouisse scores the next point downwind and it's 14-13 Sockeye, must score time. After a few quick passes, CK launches a flick over a leaping defender and Moses catches the game winner. 15-13 Sockeye.
posted on 10/28/2006 09:11:00 PM

Open Day 2
Story by Alex Masulis
Images by Jason Mechler

Friday began as sunny and warm as Thursday, but the wind picks up a bit and games become somewhat upwind/downwind. In the Sockeye/Ring game, things are tight early on as both offenses trade points. At 4-4, Jimmy Chu gets a huge layout D for Sockeye and finds a laying out Nord in the end zone for the first break and a 5-4 Sockeye lead. Sockeye would break Ring again and trade points to a 8-6 halftime lead. "Ray Illian is an absolute beast, "claims Wiggins at halftime. "No one can stop in the air this tournament. No one." In the second half, Sockeye widens their lead to 12-8, as Ring looks unable to stop their horizontal offense. Mike Caldwell is everywhere on O for Sockeye, cutting in at will and hitting Chase, Illian, and anyone else he wants deep. But Ring finally finds some life during the next point, scoring upwind for the first time on a shot to Mike Moore to make it 9-12. Sockeye immediately answers as Moses hits Nord upwind, but Ring is undeterred. They score the third-straight upwind goal and stop Sockeye's O the next, point scoring downwind to make it 11-13. On the next point Ring gets a D near Sockeye's end zone and Hinkle hits Tuba with a blading backhand for yet another upwind break. After yet another Sockeye turn in the next point, Jason Cade catches a macked disc for a Ring goal and all of a sudden it's a tie ballgame, 13-13. "We didn't really change anything up," says Rhett Russ, "they just started turning the disc over all of a sudden." Shortly after this statement, Sockeye prove that they were mostly beating themselves, as they score easily downwind, get the turn in the next point, and get the disc to Ben Wiggins. Wiggins cranks a fifty yard blade into the wind and Jaeger comes down with it in a pile of players. He stands up, waits until stall eight or nine, and returns the favor to Wiggins, handing him a short backhand for the goal and the game, 15-13 Sockeye.
In the other exciting first round match-up, Bravo and Chain both break each other early on and trade to 4-4. Bravo is mostly running man or a zone transition on D, while Chain is running a trap zone. "I think this one'll be tight," says Deaver at 4-4. "Historically, we've had spirited, close games with these guys. If the game stays close, Chain'll be gunning until the very end, but if we can get up three or four points, I think they'll give up." The two teams trade O points to 7-7 but after a Bravo D, Mangry hits Adam Simon for the upwind break and 8-7 halftime lead. "This one's gonna be a fight the whole way," says Chain's Jason Simpson at half time. "That break was big, but I'm confident we'll answer back." Chain quickly proves Simpson's prediction true, starting the second-half on a break, but Bravo immediately responds with an upwind goal and then hucks downwind to Beau Kittredge, their go-to guy deep, for the 10-8 lead. The teams trade downwind goals to 13-12, Bravo leading. But at that key juncture in the game, Simpson gets a huge layout D on a Bravo swing pass, and sprints to the end zone to catch a quick flick from Rob Barrett. It's a 13-13 tie and the cap is on. Bravo hucks it away looking for Beau the next point and Barrett throws another goal, this time downwind to Greg Swanson. Bravo's Deaver hits Steve Rouisse for the 14-14 tie and it's double game point with Chain receiving and going downwind. After a huck floats just deep, Chain gets the disc back and hits AJ Tiarsmith for the 15-14 upset victory.
In the other first round match-ups, Rhino easily defeats regional rivals Revolver in a windy game where Rhino's disc skills looked significantly stronger. Revolvers' Nan Gao blamed the loss on unforced Revolver errors more than Rhino D's ("Okay, Seth Wiggins got one good D," admitted Nan), but whatever the reason it looked clear that Rhino's handlers were more effective controlling the disc and especially hucking upwind than Revolver's.
The Furious/DoG game started with an air of portent as DoG struggled to score the first O point, while Furious scored in 3 throws on a pinpoint huck from Cruikshank. DoG's offense would struggle mightily in this game and after Furious went up 7-3, the game looked mostly over. "We're not moving the disc enough on O," said DoG's Ziperstein. "And we're getting stuck in bad spots on the field." Furious' horizontal offense continued to look virtually unstoppable in the second half as they rolled to a15-6 domination. Cruikshank and Lugsdin, both serious deep threats, are able to get the disc underneath whenever they want and both have absurd throws that they're not afraid to launch into the end zone at will. Cruikshank, widely considered to be the current best thrower in Ultimate, continued to throw perfect hucks all game against DoG, often to Al-Bob Nichols, who at 42 is the oldest player in Open at the Club Championships this year (DoG's Parinella is 41 for those keeping score at home). Furious, not only as defending UPA Club Champions, but due to their dominating play so far this weekend, are certainly the team to beat this year. I seriously doubt that any team other than Sockeye has a chance to do so this weekend.
In the second round of power pools, Sockeye mutilates Bravo, playing their dominating horizontal offense going downwind, scrappy man defense, and taking absurd chances going upwind whenever they got the D. Their superior athleticism proved too much for Bravo, who looked emotionally defeated after swilly hucks from Sockeye were continually completed. Sockeye wins 15-7. Furious continues to crush, this time against fellow Northwesterners Revolver, winning 15-8 in convincing fashion.
Chain upset Ring 15-12 in a game that wasn't as close as the score makes it sound. Chain was playing man defense and poaching off handlers in the lanes and they managed to get two breaks early in the game. Ring got one of those breaks back late in the first half, and Chain heads into halftime with a 8-7 lead. On the first point of the second half, Dylan Tunnell saves a certain turnover by skying for a disc that looked uncatchable high in the air, landing, and sending a 40 yard high backhand into the end zone for the goal. Ring does have chances to break Chain in the second half, but they never manage to convincingly work the disc upwind and the second half goes all the way to 14-12 without a single break. On the final point of the game, Ring throws a turnover and Jason Simpson hits John Hammond with an upwind flick for the game as chants of "Atlanta, raise up!" fill the air. The No.10 seed has proven their worth and they'll face Revolver in the quarters on Saturday morning.
The most exciting game of the second round was clearly DoG vs. Rhino, two teams who rarely play each other and bring starkly dissimilar styles of play to the field. DoG mostly plays a vertical stack offense in this game, while Rhino plays their own version of a horizontal spread. Unlike the other NW teams, however, Rhino likes to use many quick, short passes between handlers before isolating a guy on the sideline for a big huck. Most points for them either follow that pattern or else they just work it all the way down with short, very quick throws, often breaking the mark and throwing before a count even begins. DoG is playing a zone defense when Rhino is going downwind and interestingly, a man defense when they're going upwind. The strategy pays off early as DoG goes up 4-1. But then Rhino finds some fire and makes a string of D's, scoring four-straight goals to go up 5-4. DoG scores the next point upwind and answers with a downwinder, returning the game to 6-5, on serve. They trade to 7-7 and Forch hits Zip with a flick for the 8-7 halftime lead. The second half is complete craziness as Rhino comes out fired up and immediately scores the first two goals of the half to regain the lead at 9-8. DoG scores next after BVH dives to snag an absurd hammer catch, bringing "oohs" from the awed crowd. But Rhino, not to be outdone, marches upwind and launches a huck to Doug McKenzie, who skies 6'6" Colin Mahoney, dumps the disc and then lays out through traffic for a swilly backhand goal that air-bounces over a crowd of five players. The crowd is fired up. DoG receives the pull and scores the fourth-straight upwinder on a hammer to Forch and it's 10-10. Rhino scores the fifth-straight upwind goal right after the cap horn blows on a huck miraculously caught by Breeze Strout and they're up 11-10 in a game to 13. Seth Wiggins catches a Callahan goal in the next point and it looks like DoG may be done. They score one more on a downwind huck to BVH and Rhino finishes the upset with a huck past a diving Ziperstein for the 13-11 victory.
In the prequarters, Ring beats Machine in a 15-12 game that really never looks like it'll end in anything but a Ring victory and DoG rolls over Metal in the clash of the Bostonians. Ring's Ray Parrish is going deep at will and scoring a ton of goals as Hinkle, Inselmann, and Russ launch discs into the endzone. Metal has still never beaten DoG and although DoG's O has looked shaky all weekend, they have no reason to be anything but supremely confident against Metal. DoG is playing a lot of zone against Metal, forcing them into long points where they can't isolate individual matchups and they take half 8-4 before cruising to 15-8 victory.
At the end of Friday, a scenario exists in which all four Northwest teams could potentially make Semis. Could. Sockeye plays DoG, Furious plays Ring, Rhino plays Bravo, and Revolver plays Chain in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Could the impossible happen? I'll go out on a limb and say the first three will make it but if Chain keeps playing like they did today, they'll narrowly defeat Revolver in a hotly contested game.
posted on 10/28/2006 02:48:00 AM

Open Day 1
Story by Alex Masulis
Images by Jason Mechler

In a day without many upsets, the big story was Revolver—a team who's never been to the UPA Club Championships (a lot of their players are from the former Kaos team, but their roster's changed enough for me to justify saying they count as a new team)—defeating No.3 seed and perennial powerhouse DoG. The interesting part of the game was the fact that Revolver was playing more of a traditional "DoG offense" than DoG for most of the game, playing a possession offense with only occasional strikes to key guys going deep.
"We have a great combination of young, pretty fearless guys and old veterans who can still play and who are willing to teach us," said Revolver's Ryo Kawaoka.
In their previous game against Chicago, DoG had struggled a bit as well and Machine's captain Tim Halt had mentioned that DoG was playing "the worst offense I've seen them play—ever." Then added, "Of course, they're still beating us." In that game DoG's defense was more than strong enough to make up the for any offensive jitters, but against Revolver in the first half, DoG's D was having a hard time finding any chinks in the armor. "We're not playing well" said DoG's Adam Sigelman, "and they're just not giving up the disc much." Revolver's handlers were playing scrappy possession offense, and when it stalled out they were having good success hucking to Rocky Beach and especially Mark Sherwood. After going down 4-8 at half, DoG changed their D a bit and found success switching the mark a bit on Revolver's handlers and playing hard on their dumps. New pickup Ben Van Heuvelen was playing well along with usual suspects Josh Ziperstein and Fortunate Mueller and for a while it was looking like a classic comeback as DoG went from 6-10 to 11-12. On the next point, after a number of turns and a disgusting number of calls, DoG tied the game at 12-12 with a questionable scoober at a high stall count. Revolver jammed in a goal to Nick Handler to go up 13-12 and during the next point DoG was working the disc well upfield until Nan Gao gets a layout D on a disc thrown well behind Fortunat. Revolver scores the key point to go up 14-12, DoG makes it 13-14, and on game point, after at least six turnovers, Revolver gets the disc to Rocky for the 15-13 win.
In general the story of the day was Northwest region dominance, even more than most people expected. The four teams lost a total of two games, one of which was to another NW team (Rhino's 12-15 loss to Furious George) and Revolver's 16-17 double-game point loss to Vicious Cycle. Sockeye and Furious cruised in all their games, both running almost exclusively spread offenses that were hardly broken all day.
"We're getting up by five or six points and then just putting it in cruise control" said Sockeye's Jaime Arambula. "Although that might not be a great thing."
Regardless, neither of last year's finalists was really challenged today and my bet is that we'll see another Furious-Sockeye final in 2006.
In other news, Johnny Bravo was the only other undefeated team after day one, as they beat BAT 15-12, squeezed past Metal 15-13 in a very close game (Metal took half 8-5 after getting four-straight defensive breaks), and played their best game against Ring, eventually winning 15-6.
"We run a modified horizontal offense to isolate our guys" said Will Deaver, "and it seems to be working pretty well."
Parker Krug is cranking backhands 60-yards upwind for goals, Beau is skying people left and right (except for Metal's Will Neff, who did an impressive job of shutting Beau down for much of the Metal/Bravo game), and Deaver, Richter, and Ryan Farrell are getting open at will in the midfield. Their wins weren't all convincing, but they're athletic and after a number of underperforming years at the Club Championships, they have the motivation to make something happen.
Sub Zero started the day off strong and Todd Owens, playing with a broken fibula, was jacking hucks at will. But their offense started developing some hiccups during the middle of the tight Chain/Zero game and Zero's normally solid handler core of Rupp, Goldstein, Brown, and Nas were producing more turnovers than usual. Some sideline viewers blamed the downturn on the loss of Leon to a pulled hamstring, but it honestly looked as if Zero lacked a dominating leadership on offense, perhaps missing ex-captain Tim Murray or the gnome-giant connection of yesteryear. The athletic Chain team quickly capitalized on Zero's errors around halftime, launching deep shot after deep shot to AJ Tiarsmith and Dylan Tunnell as Hammond, Stubbs, and Simpson were instrumental in moving the disc around underneath. Chain looked solid today but it's unclear whether their huck-centered offense will continue to dominate against more stingy defenses in the power pool.
Ring and Rhino, both finishing the first day with a 2-1 record, looked mostly solid, but Rhino had the closer game with the No.1 seed in their pool and they were one of the few teams who looked equally effective with the spread and vertical stack offenses. Seth Wiggins and Justin Grishkin run the offense from the handler position and break the mark often, and the middle of the field is fairly egalitarian—not focusing too much on any one player. That said, Doug McKenzie, Toaster, and Adam Ferrea played significant roles for the team throughout the day.
Ring may or may not be the tallest of many tall teams at the Club Championships, but they are the undeniable leader in another important and underappreciated statistic: grown man strength. Most top Ultimate teams have some tall, athletic dudes, but Ring's guys aren't beanpoles: they look like full-grown men. Like your dad who always wrestled you and won even when you were in peak shape as a high school athlete, Ring can bring the pain. Add to this the fact that Ring is probably the most emotionally-driven team in the top bracket of men's Ultimate, and they can be seriously intimidating if they want to be. The flip side of this, however, is that one thing can go wrong and their whole team inexplicably implodes, suddenly lacking intimidation and fire. The Ring effect is a phenomenon all top club teams know well, and the rest of Power Pool F will be secretly hoping they avoid the "en fuego" Ring in their games tomorrow.
The Condors, although not the team they once were, still have flashes of their former dominance and no team can ignore Steets and Husak. Look for them to fight their way out of the shitbox and into the play-in game against the loser of the F pool while Sub Zero battles Metal for the right to play a Northwestern team in the other play-in match-up. Metal was hurting a bit after the loss of key cutter Danny Clark to a torn hamstring in the first game of the day, but Jeff Graham, Will Neff, Bailey Russell, and the rest of the gang possess more than enough athleticism to still make their mark on this tournament.
The question everyone's asking is whether the Northwest can send all four teams to quarterfinals, and at this point, I'm definitely saying yes. If I was a betting man, I'd guess that DoG, Bravo, and Ring will make quarters as well and the last spot's up for grabs.
posted on 10/25/2006 07:35:00 PM