Ironside, Revolver advance to Open final in Sarasota
Posted: October 30, 2010 09:23 PM
2010 USA Ultimate Club Championships
Day 3 Recap
Open Division
By : Jonathan Neeley, special to usaultimate.org
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – OPEN QUARTERFINALS
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – OPEN SEMIFINALS
With the tournament’s top eight teams set to compete for a place in Semifinals and beyond, Saturday promised a series of gut checks. It was win or go home, and with all of the work that it took for Ironside, Ring of Fire, Chain Lightning, Sockeye, Revolver, Truck Stop, Doublewide, and Southpaw to get to this point, nobody was going down without a fight.
On one field, Ring of Fire players grinned and told passers-by that their game with Ironside was the one to watch while captain Jared Inselmann barked at his teammates that “nobody is grittier than us!” On the next, Chain Lightning captain remarked that holding the mark would be key in containing Sockeye’s quick-moving offense. On the Revolver v. Truck Stop field, veteran Adam Sigelman acknowledged the depth of Revolver’s attack, saying that they would put themselves in the game if they could slow down a few key players and work from there. And finally, as his Southpaw squad warmed up to play Doublewide, coach Jeff Snader said that his team would continue to lean on its physical conditioning and that they were prepared for the athletic defense that Doublewide would apply to their handlers.
In the Doublewide v. Southpaw and Revolver v. Truck Stop games, the first few points went according to plan. While Doublewide’s first possession opened with a missed huck from Kevin Richardson to Brodie Smith, they were able to quickly get the disc back from Southpaw and score the goal. When Southpaw received, Snader’s comments were put to action as cutters Art Shull, Joel Wooten, and Trey Katzenbach ran continuously in hopes of tiring Doublewide defenders. Next door, Truck Stop looked fired up after fighting their way down yesterday’s long road to Quarterfinals. Their offense, which has looked shaky throughout the weekend, remained calm when they came up against the speedy Revolver defense, and Brent Bellinger and George Hughes-Strange stepped up their play to maintain possession and work to get the disc back after a turn.
As the Doublewide v. Southpaw game continued, turnovers were not hard to come by for either team, but it was Doublewide that was able to convert more of its chances. While Southpaw’s handlers are very organized, the downfield is not always as well-spaced, making it difficult to find open teammates even when the disc is moving quickly. Still, Southpaw showed its unrelenting spirit throughout the game, clamping down on offense and bringing defensive pressure just when it seemed that Doublewide was poised to put the game out of reach. Philly reminded anyone watching the tournament that what a remarkable job they had done in putting together a very competitive team in only a season’s time, but in the end, Doublewide broke Southpaw to win the game 15-10 and advance to the Semifinals for the first time in team history.
As the first half moved along, Revolver and Truck Stop played a game that included quite a few turnovers on discs that popped up in the wind or were thrown too far ahead of streaking receivers. Truck Stop’s offensive line played its best defense of the weekend, keeping Revolver’s typically strong defensive line from finding the endzone. On the defensive end, Sean Keegan beat Bart Watson to a hanging disc in the endzone, and Truck Stop was in position to take a two-break lead into the half. The offense, however, could not hold on, and in a sign of things to come struggled to keep the disc in their hands when Revolver fronted cutters that were moving upwind and ratcheted up its defensive effort on dumps. Revolver got even on breaks just before half on the heels of a pinpoint inside-out flick huck from Watson into the endzone, and while Truck Stop broke coming out to make the game 8-8, they would not be able to regain their lead. While Truck Stop just missed converting its break chances due to hasty attempts in the wind, Revolver made sure to slow the game down and space the field. Mac Taylor hit Tyler Grant with a huge flick huck, and Revolver won by a score of 15-9 in a game that had once felt closer.
On the two other fields, games were not nearly as balanced. Ironside and Sockeye both jumped out to 5-0 leads before Ring of Fire and Chain Lightning got on the board. On the Ironside field, each Boston player was winning his match-up while a middle of the field force clogged Ring of Fire throwing lanes. As they have been all weekend, Ironside was quick to strike to the endzone once they forced a turnover, doing so with little risk and great efficiency. In Sockeye’s match-up, a mixture of zone and man defenses kept Chain Lightning’s offense on the field, as poaches neutralized Chain’s talented downfield cutters while the wind made it difficult to break the mark and use the entire field. Sockeye was often able to force a turnover very close to Chain’s endzone, making break scores quick and easy.
In the first half, Sockeye’s offense worked exactly how Tiarsmith said that it wanted to: by moving the disc at the absolute first available chance, which led to opportunities to throw to a wide open man before the mark had even arrived. Sockeye’s offense looked to be at its best, allowing fast and intelligent players to make the cuts that they favor most while having an array of throwing options available after catching the disc. In the second half, Chain was able to seal off the break side more effectively, leading to the cluttered and stagnant Sockeye offense that we often saw when things were not going well. Unfortunately for Chain, they were unable to convert chances after turnovers. Miscommunications led to a few throws directly to Sockeye players, and the sense of urgency caused by the score deficit led to a sense of panic that returned the disc to Sockeye. After a missed catch by Chain star Dylan Tunnell led to a Callahan goal by Joe Sefton that brought the score to 12-7. From there, Sockeye rode the game out to a 15-10 win and its seventh Semifinal appearance in the last eight years.
Semifinals
In the first Semifinal match-up, Ironside faced its first true test of the weekend in Sockeye. While they had faced strong teams in earlier games, including fellow Semifinalist Doublewide, none of them came with the possibility of elimination, nor were they against a team whose experience on this big stage would keep them in the game regardless of the score.
If there was a memo about Semifinals games being close, however, Ironside failed to get it, jumping out to a 4-1 lead on the strength of a high-flying layout blocks by Teddy Browar-Jarus and Ben Kleaveland. Ironside’s handlers played a couple of steps off of the mark, opting to take away the around breaks that Sockeye’s offense loves. Key cutter Jeff Graham turned in a strong performance while being guarded by Sockeye’s Nate Castine, making a number of athletic plays deep in Seattle’s territory that led to Ironside scores. On the strength of stingy defense that included a timely Matt Rebholz point-block on Tim Gehret and an offense that was enjoying a productive Graham and Danny Clark, Ironside took half 8-5. They continued to hold off Sockeye’s efforts, climbing to an 11-8 lead.
At that point, Sockeye found a defensive look that brought daylight. The team’s zone defense with a four-man cup produced a number of Ironside turnovers, with Sockeye captain commenting that that some of the turns came on uncharacteristically-rushed throws that attempted to get past middle defenders. In what has been a very solid weekend performance at the deep-deep position, Matt Rehder pulled down yet another high-flying block, this time catching an Ironside hammer to the back of the endzone. The disc quickly advanced upfield until Tim Gehret hit Ray Illian in the endzone to bring the score to 12-11. On the next point, however, Graham shined again, breaking Castine to put his team up 13-11. Sockeye would trail by one once more, but Ironside did not falter, closing the game out at 15-12. After the game, defensive line stalwart Will Neff remarked that Sockeye was the toughest challenge his team had faced all season, and that the win was a testament to his team’s strong on-disc defense and steady offense.
For anyone who has seen each team play, it should not be surprising to hear that Revolver and Doublewide was a match-up of two teams with great throwers, speed, and playmaking ability. While Revolver looks to run a balanced attack that uses all of its weapons and hucks only when a completion is highly likely, Doublewide thrives on lulling opponents to sleep with swings and resets with intentions to let it fly sooner rather than later. Against Revolver, Doublewide has the ability to shrink the field with deep help and strong marks, and against Doublewide, Revolver has marks strong enough to hinder hucks and defenders fast and jumpy enough to defend them when they go up.
The crowd that gathered to watch these opposing forces battle it out was not disappointed, as Brodie Smith looked early and often to Kurt Gibson, a connection that any college Ultimate fan will remember as lethal. Doublewide got the first break, taking a 5-4 lead, but when Revolver looked to Taylor Cascino to guard Smith, he produced a layout block that led to a 7-6 Revolver lead.
After the half, Revolver was able to extend this margin, fighting off early nerves and opting to play its game of breaking the mark and moving the disc rather than engage Doublewide in an aerial battle. Doublewide began to miss on huck attempts as its offense became predictable. Rather than converting from a hucking style, however, Doublewide simply changed up its receivers, sending Max Cook and Chris Gibson while Smith demonstrated that when you can throw as far and hard as he can, there is not such a thing as drifting cutters.
At 13-11 Revolver, Smith was open in the endzone and called for the disc. As it had all game, the Revolver mark positioned flatly to take away both the forehand and backhand huck. In any other case, the thrower would have turned and dumped the disc, opting to keep the disc alive rather than force a throw against Revolver’s explosive defense. The thrower, however, was Kurt Gibson, who promptly hit Smith with a 50-yard hammer that sailed like a typical backhand. This score was a perfect example of the sometimes unstoppable deep game that led Doublewide through a great showing at this year’s Club Championships.
Such a breathtaking play, however, was not enough to get past Revolver. While Gibson gave one more demonstration of top level athletic ability when he came out of nowhere to block a potential game-winning upline throw to Mark Sherwood, the Doublewide offense would soon turn the disc over and allow Revolver to march back up the field. With his team up 14-12, Cahill called a timeout, and after a few resets and swings, hit stand out Bart Watson with a hammer that sealed the game at 15-12.
After the game, Revolver veteran called the win a total team effort. From youngsters Ashlin Joye, Russell Wynne, and Cassidy Rasmussen to seasoned champions Watson, Jon Hester, and Brian Garcia, Revolver played each of its players at least once in its victory over Doublewide. “The entire season, we’ve kept ourselves hungry,” Greenough said. “When we do something good, we say ‘silver medal’ to remind ourselves of falling short in 2009. When we do something bad, we remind ourselves that we’re the reigning World Champions, which helps us to stay positive.”
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While working to provide nightly write-ups for USA Ultimate, Jonathan Neeley is also doing freelance reporting on the Open Division. Follow him on Twitter (@87til) or at 87tilinfinity.wordpress.com