Mixed Writeups
Day Two
By: Brock Stevens
Sunday morning in Blaine at the National Sports Center arrived with a slight chill in the air and somewhat of a brisk wind out of the east that would surely be helpful to the east coast BUDA squad’s 1-3-3 zone on their road to semifinals. Zone defense was a favorite for everyone in the morning but when the day heated up and the wind calmed down, hot intense man D was going to conquer all if it didn’t get burned first by fast, precisely timed cuts.
Fifth and Final Round of Pool Play
With Eugene 4-0, Denver 0-4, and Seattle 1-3 and no way to move up after Saturday play, the top and last two seeds for bracket play had been decided before games began at 8:30 a.m. Seeds 2 (with a bye into the semis) through 4 would, however, still had yet to be decided after this round. There was a possibility of a three-way tie for second place if Atlanta beat Minnesota and BUDA took care of Denver with BUDA on the low end of the tiebreak situation with a -5 score differential. For Atlanta to guarantee second place they needed to beat Minnesota by five or more points. The easiest way for Minnesota to take the second seed and a leisurely bye was with a win.
It looked like the former was going to happen with Atlanta’s stifling zone trapping the Minnesota offense on the sidelines throughout much of the first half forcing high stall count throws. Atlanta quickly converted the turns with a quick one shot goal in the end zone or a swing pass to set up some nice cut on the break side.
While Eugene was dismantling their northwest neighbors 10-0 on the next field over, Atlanta takes half 8-3 with an Elliot Erickson D setting up a Chris Kocher scoring pass right back to Erickson.
Half time did wonders for Minnesota. A couple minor adjustments on offense combined with the unleashing of speedy Kelly Wild (who played in the junior girls world Ice Hockey championships this year) is what got the home team back in it. “The offense calmed down,” Minnesota coach Mike Berseth said, “We hucked it into a few too many poaches in the first half. We were more patient and made better decisions in the second.”
Off the second half pull, Wild went deep and caught a huck from Peter Tschida for a score. After an Atlanta turnover, Wild again sprinted deep and the 5’2” speedster pulled down another huck setting up a James Mitchell to Natalie Depalma score. The Minnesota defense then picked up the intensity and Assault scored two more points to bring the score to within one. “Our defensive play was six notches better than in the first half,” Berseth said. Atlanta came back with its own athletic short speedster, Erickson, skying a defender half a foot taller, macking the disc. Erickson’s quick reactions enabled him to layout and grab the macked disc and secure a second chance score to put Atlanta up two, 9-7. Through out the weekend Erickson made spectacular catches and huge layout D’s.
Erickson then put Atlanta up 10-7 with a streaking diagonal cut to get open for a Kocher huck. Minnesota then came back with another fast female receiver, Katie Godfrey, catching a huck and putting it to Matthew Kortz for the score. During the next point the soft cap went on, game to 12. Minnesota immediately made it 10-9. Atlanta responded with a pretty down the line Max Schein backhanded bender to Erickson. There were a few turns during the point but both teams quickly recovered to work hard on D.
It was now do or die for Minnesota as they needed to go on a three point run to grab the victory. Wild’s deep cuts were opening up the field because the Atlanta defense had to respond to her. The Minnesota offense got the first point they needed with Alex Chlebeck hitting Godfrey for the score. The Minnesota defense then kicked it up another couple of notches. The defensive seven forced Assault to make a bad pass and Tschida picked up the disc and hucked it to Roland Biro for a score to tie it at 11s. The crowd was now in a frenzy. Tschida intercepted a huck down the middle of the field and eventually threw the game-winning score bringing about a massive Minnesota celebration. .Quite a comeback
Minnesota now had a bye into the semis and sent Atlanta down to fourth place when coupled with BUDA’s 15-3 win over Denver. Final score in the Northwest clash was 15-2. Final pool play standings were Eugene 5-0, Minnesota 4-1, BUDA 3-2, Atlanta 2-3, Seattle 1-4, Denver 0-5.
Quarterfinals
After their heartbreaking defeat Atlanta now had to face a scrappy Seattle squad. Out of the blocks Atlanta scored two quick points. Disc Northwest subsequently scored and got the break back to tie it at two. The teams then traded for the next six points. Highlights included Disc Northwest’s Merz foot block setting up a Louis Cohen score. Atlanta moved the disc swiftly back and forth across the field ending with Brice Dixon hitting Jack Barrow for the score. Atlanta then went ahead with Max Leonard’s hammer throwing score to Erickson. Atlanta then took the half with Madeline Roorbach snatching a score in a crowd on a Schein accidental overthrow, as the wind was still sometimes playing havoc with the flying disc.
To open the second half another Merz footblock set a Sally Landefeld to Adlai Feiser to Cohen score. Atlanta made it 9-7 then Disc Northwest got a score with Feiser hitting Merz but a pick was called. Feiser and Merz then just made it a live replay with the same cut and throw for a score.
10-8, 10-9, soft cap, 11-9 game to 13 was the next sequence of events almost the exact same situation as Atlanta’s first game of the day. It gets eerier for Atlanta when Disc Northwest scores the next two points. The second after an Atlanta goal line time out and then turn, hard cap horn goes off and Seattle moves it the length of the field for the score. Another 11-11 universe point. A couple of exchanges of possession and Dixon gets the disc in the middle of the field and 25 yards out from the goal line. Eye contact with Barrow in the end zone they know the break force cut is open. Dixon whips his arm up and throws the hammer for the sick game winning score. “I saw he was open break side,” Dixon revealed, “and I knew I could get it to him.” “I kind of knew he would go with the hammer by his facial expression,” said Barrow.
On the adjacent field BUDA and Denver were meeting for the second time of the day. As mentioned earlier BUDA used a 1-3-3 zone (one boy chasing, three girls forming the cup, and three boys in the match up zone) to good effect against the Cutthroat squad. They again used it in the second game scoring eight of the first half’s nine points. Denver never gave up for a moment and played hard till the end but the deficit was too big to make up and they fell 15-4. Denver coach Carrie Thrasher said, “Overall we were happy with our play this weekend we showed great improvement from one game to the next. This morning Pete Gleason, Lisi Lohre, and Alex Johnsen really stood out.”
Semifinals
The two well rested squads, Eugene and Minnesota, headed into the 12:30 matchups as overwhelming favorites. The energy rush gained in Atlanta’s exciting victorious finish against Seattle was not long lived. They played hard for the first few points against Eugene but soon wearied. At 3-1 Eugene, Oregonian Ivan Becker-Wayman temper got the best of him after getting stalled. His fit of anger produced a call for observers from Atlanta coach Kyle Weisbrod. It took a few minutes for them to get ready and get to the field but pretty much every thing settled down after that point except for the intensity of the Eugene team. Eugene took the half 8-2 and coasted to a 15-4 win. Jordan had a big game with 6 assists out of the first 12 Eu points.
On field eight BUDA threw everything they had against Minnesota but were again beaten 15-8. At 14-7 a Brian Rodriguez scored a Callahan goal to offer a glimmer of hope but it was soon dashed with a Roberto Caballero Jr. D quickly converted into a score with Godfrey connecting with Kortz.
BUDA captain Jacob Saunders said, “I’m pretty happy with the weekend. Pretty satisfied. We had two great games that went to hard cap and we won them both against Seattle and Atlanta. This was a great group to play with. I looked forward to this weekend for a long time. I’ve had great fun at it for the third year in a row. I look forward to watching the final. Both teams are ridiculously athletic”
Finals
The two dominate teams of the weekend were ready to compete for all the marbles. A couple errant passes and drops caused Minnesota to fall behind 3-0. David Schreiber pulled down two of the scores. The Eugene offense was running on all cylinders. Quick swings passes back and forth between the handlers combined with precision cuts opened up the field for big huck scores. “Almost everyone on the team can throw deep,” Eugene captain Dylan Freechild said, “and everyone can catch those deep hucks.”
Minnesota then scored the next two points to make it 3-2. Eugene was not daunted. Helped by a couple of more Minnesota miscues they scored the next four points. Schreiber, Freechild, Becker-Wayman, and Kati Dahn were the keys to the quick converting turnover into scores offense. A layout D by Cami Nelson set up a Patrick Budde to Kody Williams score. After a short halftime, Eugene went on another 4-0 run by setting up the deep cuts for scores off big swings. Colin Smith, Lily Burge, and Nathan Bofto were the major players in this scoring flurry.
Behind 12-3 Minnesota’s big game was shortly going to come to an end in the next few points. One last assist by Mitchell, a hammer to Tschida, was their last score of the weekend to make it 14-6. Eugene clinched the championship with Burge hitting Claire Neyman for the last goal. Final score 15-6. “It was an exciting weekend,” Mitchell said. “It’s always a good tournament when you can break seed by so much.”
DAY ONE
By: Brock Stevens
The first day of competition saw the first four rounds of round-robin pool play in this six team division. The biggest surprise of the day was how every team was deep and talented. The team from Eugene, Oregon (eu) ruled the day going undefeated to secure the top seed and a bye into the semis. The second seed and bye will be decided Sunday morning when Minnesota (Assault) faces off against Atlanta (Atliens). Assault, BUDA and Atlanta went 3-1 on the day. With a win tomorrow or a less than five point loss, and a BUDA win over Denver (Cutthroat) the home team Minnesota could garner the bye.
Round 1
Atlanta, the defending champion and top seed, knew from the get go that they could not rest on their laurels. They faced off against fourth seed Disc Northwest. Disc Northwest took an early 3-2 lead when Martin Merz hit Kyle Kurokawa for a score. Atlanta then started to get its both offensive and defensive game together and went on a five point run. The team from Georgia then took the half 8-5 when a big huck was caught just outside the end zone and Madeline Roorbach was quickly hit for the score. Atlanta immediately scored the first point of the second half to go up 9-5 then a big layout D by Disc Northwest’s Adlai Felser set up a one-two scoring play, Simon Pratt to Kurokawa to Sarah Edwards. Atlanta then outran the Seattle zone and ended up with an easy toss for another Roorbach score. With several great D’s by both sides frustrating the offenses the game was approaching the 90 minute soft cap. At 10-7 Atlanta’s Brice Dixon was poaching and made a great layout D and then threw 30 yards for a score. Disc Northwest’s Alex Walker then matched that with what his coach called an amazing D which eventually set up the next score to make it 11-8. The team then traded points for a 12-9 (hard cap) final score.
The other two games showed what more Atlanta would be reckoning with when Eugene blew out New England’s BUDA 15-4 and Minnesota took it to Denver 15-3.
“They have a really chilly, really calm offense,” BUDA coach Josh Seamon said of his team. “A great offense looks like it is not working at all to score, but they are.”
“We have some killer girls,” Assault’s Henry Spruth said when asked about the success of his team, “and the guys are not half-bad either.”
Round 2
After playing just about even with the defending champs in the first round, Disc Northwest faced the upstart sixth seeds in the second. They stayed with the competition early closing to within one at 4-5 when Adlai Felser threw over a Minnesota defense transitioning from zone to man with a huck to Emily Buckner who beat the Minnesota male deep-deep for the score. Minnesota recovered nicely though, reeling off the final three points of the half, capping it off with a Matthew Kortz to Rebecca Enders score. Minnesota went on to win 15-8.
While Eugene was showing its skills, patience, and athleticism against Denver, Atlanta was into another nail-biter game that would be soft-capped. Their opponent, New England, took a 9-7 lead to start off the second half. Atlanta then scored the next two points to tie it up at 9s. Atlanta’s Roorbach toed the line for a score to relish. But then Brice Dixon one-upped the stellar goal with a 40-yard hammer for a score. The teams traded points to 12’s. BUDA got a great end zone cut from Adrian Banerji for one score and Atlanta then came back with a quick five pass possession ending with an Elliot Erickson to Jack Barrow connection. BUDA then came back with its own smooth possession which ended with a Zach Lou to Tyler Kenney score. BUDA then finished off the upset with a flourish. Will Herold’s point block set up a Jacob Saunders assist on a Mia Greenwald layout score and BUDA sealed the win 14-12.
Round 3
There were now only two undefeated teams heading into the third round. The battle was between the surprising and speedy Minnesota and Eugene squads. Eugene jumped to a quick 3-1 lead with David Schreiber skying Brennan Payne for the third point. Minnesota answered back and scored the next three to go up 4-3. The play of the day was Assault’s James Mitchell’s 72-yard backhand down the sideline to a streaking Kody Williams who couldn’t make the catch on his first attempt but then caught it falling out of bounds on his second attempt. The teams then traded points to six until Eugene cashed in the next two points to take half. “This was probably the most fun game for us today,” eu’s Ivan Becker-Wayman said, and “it might have been our most frustrating.” Eugene went up 11-7 but Minnesota then put in lines with the most desire and the home team cut the lead in half. The 2-0 run put one last scare in Eugene but they handled the pressure well and scored the last four points of the game. Eu wins 15-9.
Meanwhile on field nine, Disc Northwest once again put up a terrific battle only to come up short. The game with New England was back and forth the whole way. BUDA took the half 8-7 but Seattle then took back the lead at 11-10. The game was soft-capped, game to 13. At 12-11, BUDA took a timeout at the goal line to run an iso-play for Zach Lou. The play worked as planned and Lou caught the final score with Jon Scheyer earning an assist.
Atlanta kept its hopes alive by taking a big lead early and coasting to a 15-6 win over Denver. Denver showed its grit this game and really started to gel even after going down 7-0. Denver captain Bekah Hickernell said, “I think this was the best game of the day for us. We finally got together as a team. We pulled together and started toughening it out. We started to power through as a team. The competition has been fierce but very friendly.”
Round 4
In the last round of the day, Eugene was looking to cap off an undefeated day with a victory over the top-seed. They played well in the first half and took it 8-3. Two layout D’s by Elliot Erickson gave Atlanta a little momentum which helped them roar back to within two at 9-7. Eugene then regained its composure and closed out the game with a 6-2 run, finishing out 15-9.
Minnesota sprinted to an 8-2 halftime lead against New England and then coasted to the win. James Mitchell really stood out in this game with six assists in the first nine Minnesota points. They finish with a 3-1 record, inside position for the second seed and a bye in bracket play.
In the battle of 0-3 teams, Disc Northwest zoomed out to a 7-0 lead. A foot block by Denver’s Patrick Ellsworth then began to turn the momentum of the game. Shortly, Guy Goblirsch connected with Jamie Albright for the score. Denver brought it to within four when Pete Gleason sent a 40-yard flick to Lisi Lohre. But they could come up with only one more score the rest of the way and fell to the Seattle team 7-15.
