Team X Glory Days Recap

Of course it’s up to one of the rookies to handle the write-up for Team X (Bloggers) after our recent victory at Glory Days. Zubair was very nearly foaming at the mouth when he found out the honor wasn’t bestowed upon him. Needless to say, I was highly encouraged to cast his performance in a positive light. I suppose I’ll start from the beginning.

At just barely past 8:00 am on a Saturday morning, the majority of the members of Team X
stumbled out of their cars, still clad in “cold weather” gear and marveling at the number of people who actually get up this early in the morning. Nobody was really quite sure what to expect at this point, as few of us had ever played as a team together. Once we had separated from the rest of the Illinois squad, some quick warm-ups and drills woke everybody up in preparation for our day of tests.

The pool play for Team X on Saturday consisted of games against Grinnell, Maharishi, North Park, and Iowa. The first game against the Grinnelephants was a very shaky start for the Bloggers. Although their lineup included at least two pirates (not kidding, they were pirates), this game against the 4 seed in our pool probably shouldn’t have been so close. We started on defense, and got the turn almost immediately for a score. As we would soon see, this quick turn may have been our saving grace. Our offense was in need of a bit more organization, but that was to be expected with this being the first truly competitive play that exactly half the team had seen. There were lots of drops, and lots of turns. Thankfully, the vets were able to respond on defense and the team was able to keep chugging away to a slim victory.

Maharishi was the massacre of a game that we needed to get us into the A bracket. We started off strong, and maintained our hold on the game without too much difficulty. Our O-game was still having trouble flowing, but iFuc offered little resistance. They were the team with the girl on it. This girl got a D. I think that’s all I need to say. If I remember correctly, which I hope I do, this was the team that attempted a zone defense against Lamp and Joel. Three scoobers and a point later, they decided to not do that anymore. I think the final score was 13-4.

Immediately after the Maharishi game, we had our first encounter with the guys from North Park. They turned out to be a good match for our team, with 2 handlers and a long that seemed to carry the team. They may have had a decent supporting cast, but we didn’t get to see much of it. Our team was clearly improving at this point in the day, and our offense was starting to show it. With Zubair, Lamp, and Joel all sending Charlie and Kurley deep, North Park was having a tough time keeping us out of the endzone. Movement up the field became possible now that mine and the rest of the rookies’ hands had warmed up. We traded points with North Park for the most part, until they were able to lock on and send us packing at 13 – 11. Thankfully, this wasn’t the last they would see of us.

We began our game against Iowa looking and feeling slightly dejected. We all knew this game was important, but we couldn’t muster a W against this squad. It clearly wasn’t our best game, but it also wasn’t an awful game for us. The team was tired, and not even Joel could replenish the enthusiasm. By the time it was over, we all knew it could have been a very different outcome. I’ll speak for myself when I say that I didn’t step up to the plate in this game, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. On the bright side, we learned from this game and carried this knowledge into our Sunday games.

Lamp described it best when he said, “I think our rookies took crazy pills this morning.” Sunday was our day. That morning, we faced one of the toughest routes to the championship. Thanks to our crushing defeat of Maharishi the day before, we made it into the A bracket with one of two positive point differentials out of the 2-2 teams. After some bracket rearranging to avoid match-ups against Illinois Z and Iowa, we ended up playing UW Milwaukee in the first round.

Milwaukee was a tough team, and had clearly earned their spot in the A bracket. Unfortunately for them, they were facing an entirely new squad. Everybody came out to play on Sunday. After a short pump-up speech from Joel, the team was fired up. Although they managed to take half at 7 – 3 (I think), our defense was on fire. After play resumed at half, we went on a 4 point run to tie it up. Some very key breaks were exposed by our mostly rookie D-line, which was refreshing to see. In the course of this game, Jason especially became a big threat on O and D. Tom and Mark refused to let any passes off to their longs by running shoulder to shoulder with them. John and Shane turned into defensive animals as well, taking a D each. With the rookies guarding the longs relentlessly, Joel was able to truly go to work for the first time that weekend. He provided run-through after run-through until we had the advantage. At 12-11 with our possession, we played our power line and scored with little trouble to start our road to the finals.

Miami Ohio didn’t stand a chance against our jacked up X team. Still riding the high from the last game, everybody was ready to stomp these guys. I came out early with a fantastically gratuitous and painful layout for the D on my 5’4” long. Jason got a flying layout D in the endzone, proving that he is quite tall. To further impress this point upon us, he also skyed the shit out of some guy for a point. Sammy cleaned up the garbage for us twice on O. Considering that one of these was to save my crappy invert to Ryan, I was very grateful for his heads-up play. Speaking of Ryan, this was around the time that we figured out that he has a dangerous flick. Why he was hiding this from us, I’m not sure. He immediately became a handler named Peyton, tossing his fair share in for the goal. Memorable points include Charlie throwing a hammer point to Kurley in the back corner of the endzone on stall 9, and Kurley floating a beautiful flick over the head of my defender and into the endzone for an easy catch by me. This game was proof that we had come together as a team, and that we were ready to take on anyone.

The game against Iowa State was easily my favorite game of the weekend, and not just because it was my first game against a fellow TROUT alumnus. Their team came to win, and was not ready to give up their spot to an X team from the wild card spot. Our team performed near flawlessly, with only one or two breaks against us taking it to double game point. With such an intense game, we had no choice but to utilize our vets. Charlie was absolutely on his game, and the deep shots to him from Joel and Zubair were unstoppable. He came down with the disc time after time, capitalizing on ISUC’s shorter line. On defense, the rookie powerhouses kept up the pressure on the in-cuts, forcing ISUC to rely on up-line cuts by the handlers and the occasional crazy huck. Joel and Lamp ate up just about everything in the short range. We had trouble on defense once Iowa State got within scoring range, with numerous layouts to pick up the garbage on their part. It seemed to take forever, but we maintained our lead with two breaks for most of the game. It finally came to 12-11 and our possession. We put in the power line to finish things up, but they scored on a break to tie it up with the hard cap. With the same line in, we were now upwind at game point. We worked it to the goal line, and then called a time out. Charlie had possession off a characteristic huck, with Joel starting immediately behind him. The quick handler from ISUC that I couldn’t manage to guard was on Joel, and he was looking either for the up-line score or the swing and score to Zubair. “Just put it in the air and I’ll get it,” Joel assured us. After the disc came in, Joel powered his way into the endzone chasing the flip from Chuck for a very exciting 13-12 victory. The only thing left in our way was a rematch against North Park.

Had most of the other teams not been playing out their seed, there would have been a crowd at this championship game. Illinois X, having just broken seed thrice, versus North Park, who had also risen to the top most likely to the surprise of their victims. We were tired, but excited. What North Park thought would be an easy win turned into a brawl for the title. They had the advantage for the first few points of the game, capitalizing on easy break throws from their talented handler line. Our O-line was able to keep up without too much trouble by heavily utilizing Chuck. He continued to come through for us with great reads, and ended up scoring around half of our points. The real change in pace of the game was when Joel geared the defense toward stopping the breaks from their handlers. Realizing that the high backhand was their weapon of choice, he proceeded to handblock at least three such passes from their main handler. With the rookie D-line doing their job and Joel making a mockery of their offense, the game quickly turned in our favor. Big plays included Lamp throwing a falling backhand to the break side at a high stall count for the score, and Kurley easily skying his defense for the winning point on a huck.

Rookies to watch:

All of them. Seriously. They learned how to play defense this weekend. It’s ridiculous. There are some things I’d like to point out though.

Jason – He really learned how to use his size to his advantage this weekend. I think before long, he and the other tall freshmen will make some of the vets fear the skies.

Peyton (Ryan) – He favors his flick huck. Enough said.

Tom – He showed great defensive instinct right from the start. He put himself in position for several D’s, but needs to commit just a hair more and go for the layout.

Underrated vets:

Cozza – I hardly mentioned him in my writeup. This is partly because he was injured and played less for a few games, and partly because I was busy trying to analyze Joel’s defense. He was a great example for the rookies both on offense and defense – knowing where to be and when.

Zubair – It was painfully obvious that we were short on handlers. Zubair stepped up his game to fill the void, often making two active handlers seem like three. His fakes and pivots were killer, especially against ISUC when they started forcing straight-up. Nobody could stop his huck from getting off, and his up-line cuts were something the other teams had to watch out for.

Lambka – Throughout the course of the tournament, he filled in at every position. He played a lot of points. A lot. He was on the receiving end of most of Joel’s over the top passes, and threw a few over the cup himself. I wish I would have kept track of how many people ended up on the ground as a result of his presence.

It was a great tournament Team X, and I hope to see some of you on my team for Fallout.