USA Ultimate

Open Division Mid-Atlantic Regionals Recap

After one rescheduling and one relocation, the Mid Atlantic Open Regional Championships finally took place this past weekend in Kennett Square, PA.  Ring of Fire and Truck Stop headed into the tournament favored to take the region’s top spots, while the final two bids were largely believed to be up for grabs.

Ring and Truck punched their Sarasota tickets with championship bracket semifinals wins on Saturday, but that did not stop either team from gunning for the Regional title in Sunday’s championship match up.  On Truck Stop’s first possession, standout cutter Alan Kolick dropped an easy deep grab, but he quickly redeemed himself with a run-through D (two throws later) and an easy goal catch that helped Truck’s offense hold.  A few Ring offensive possessions later, Brett Matzuka threw an uncharacteristic turnover but redeemed himself by jumping into the lane and snagging Truck’s first upfield throw before a Truck receiver could even get a hand on it.  Ring scored shortly thereafter, and it was clear that every player was taking it upon himself to atone for his mistakes and keep his team alive.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Canniff]

Though Truck took half 8-7, its offensive unit began experiencing difficulties in the final third of the field.  They struggled to move the disc to the break side there, and it wasn’t uncommon to see the force and strike lanes frequently clogged.  With the help of a few Truck misfires, Ring’s defense keyed in on these difficulties and began to rattle off breaks in the middle of the second half. (To be clear, Ring has two defensive lines—one that favors hucking early and often on a break opportunity, and one that favors working the disc patiently on a break opportunity.  Ring’s aggressive, hucking D-line was responsible for a number of these second half breaks, with Taylor Pope hucking and receiving several of the break goals) Truck’s offense got broken again after a timeout, and Ring appeared to be on its way to victory at 13-10.  With its defense back on the field, however, Truck returned to its strengths: simple, tight man defense.  Downfield Ring receivers struggled to become viable options, and Truck’s handler defenders did well to take away and contest the break side.  Before anyone knew it, Truck had rattled off three breaks of its own, and the Regional final was headed to double-game-point with the game tied at 14.  Ring worked it up to midfield before Brian Casey hung a huge OI flick into the middle of the Truck end zone.  NexGen alumnus Noah Saul then made the grab of his life over Truck defender Jeff Wodatch, earning Ring the Regional title and sending Truck to the second place game.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Canniff]

In second-place-bracket play, the Oakland Haiders had come from behind against Cash Crop to earn a spot in the second place game and a berth at Nationals.  Tyler DeGirolamo was a huge, un-guardable force all weekend for the Haiders, who are largely made up of current and former Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur players.  With anger on Truck’s mind and a number of Haiders dropping with injuries, Truck Stop cruised to a 15-9 victory.

Before Cash Crop’s game-to-go against Southpaw, Cole Sullivan, referring to his team’s win against Southpaw earlier in the morning, noted that it was always exceptionally difficult to beat a good team twice in the same weekend.  Unfortunately for his team, his words proved to be prescient, as Cash Crop would come up short against the hometown Philly boys.

Each team earned just one break in the first half, making the score 8-7 Southpaw (on serve) as the second half started.  Whereas Cash Crop’s offense relied on the playmaking abilities of its huckers (Sullivan, Raju Prasad, and others) and deep receivers (Ben Dieter, Sullivan, and others), Southpaw’s offense was predicated on energetic, regimented handler movement with lots of short, predictable passes.  Trey Katzenbach was an anchor for his team’s offense per usual, operating as a sure-fire initial isolation cutter before falling back into the handler set.  Eventually, Cash Crop’s high-risk high-reward playing style caught up with them, and Southpaw punished Cash Crop’s turnovers with three breaks over the course of five points.  In its final offensive possessions, Southpaw’s handlers moved the disc too quickly and too far to the break side to give Cash Crop’s defenders chances at generating blocks.  Thanks to this important second half surge (which Southpaw also utilized against the Virginia Squires earlier in the fourth place bracket), Southpaw is headed back to Nationals with the final Mid Atlantic Bid.