J Men and Santa Clara Scrimmages

Two weekends ago we scrimmaged the J Men, a local pickup/club team. Last weekend we scrimmaged Santa Clara. This is my rundown of the two events, mostly the J Men scrimmage, based on CVL's photography.

What I remember of the game:

We (college students) beat J Men (old people) at waking up on a saturday morning and showed up when we said we would. We are so on top of our schedule that we got to Roble early just to throw around a lott. Eventually the other team showed up and started playing us. At that point Cody threw an almost believable fake, which most likely was followed by this throw to Wolverine.

You remember their fucked up rule about no brick marks? I think this is Ed not caring. Bobby cares though, perhaps a little too much.

We teach our rookies good habits, demonstrated by these textbook clap-catchs by Kellen, this early jump on D, and this immaculate kag set. Our old vets play a little lazy, but who needs to pivot to get open on a Norwegian superstar anyway? But out alumni play crazy good (but not good enough). Speaking of which, Sheehan you are the most photogenic person wearing a pig hat ever. Really, much better than me in a green visor. The camera even blurs me out I'm so bad (this is after the D and despite what it looks like I was spatially adjacent to the red dude).

Cody and Ethan kept getting Ds all day long. But it may have tired Ethan out here.

Sheehan, late in the game, was still dominating. So were the rookies. Ocelot a lot, Jamie (mack it for yards), and Kellen (make him dance). Even Ed by the end managed to open his eyes, puff out his chest, and show off his high-release backhand.

Travelling rant:

Billy that was an absolute bullshit travel call. I did not catch the disc, slow down, speed up, and then stop. My knees are too weak for that. But if its the only way you (old and fat [not as fat as Ethan's man here]) can keep up with me (broken and out of shape) so be it. Just try not to cry too much.

Some good advice:

Jamie, you aren't supposed to bite the disc. Its still a strip. Ed, I know you are good enough to play with your eyes closed, but please don't. John, staring at your mark's, lets say, midsection isn't much better. At least Bobby does it right.

Ed, more advice. Don't huck the disc into the guy right in front of you. Wait for someone to get open and throw around your mark. John, that's a foul. Don't let your mark feel you up. Naveed, thanks for cleaning up my crappy throws. Next time throw to Kellen, he was open.

The Santa Clara scrimmage:

Well, I was in Berkeley when this happened, but based on the slide show I'm pretty sure I know what happened.

Santa Clara had some pretty loose defense that Bobby and Ben took full advantage of to score many points. Bobby put all his energy into gritting his teeth, letting him get ridiculously open to throw the huck for another score. Sheehan played so well he got bored. John Murphy was having such an easy time of it he waved to the growing crowd every time he caught the disc. Jamie threw the bucket pass to Bobby to win the game. My guess for final score: 15-2.

Thats approximately what happened.

*All photography courtesy of Chris VanLang*

What Happens in Vegas

...gets an overly long write up here. Trouble in Vegas was Feb 5-7 (really just Feb 5th).

We started Friday off with a 12:00 pm game against Northern Michigan, a team that practices indoors all winter long and was attending their second ever tournament. Perhaps because they were a newish team or perhaps because they were wearing pink, we immediately went up 4-0. In the second point of the game Will had an impressive layout D, earning the first forty of the game. At 4-0 the wind started to pick up and we started trading points. Sheehan had the first two of many hucks to Cody for scores in the first half. Pink earned one break off a John Murphy throwaway, but Stanford answered back. Ds by Zach Lott, Sheehan, and Jimmy in the next point weren't enough to stop N Michigan, but Murphy completed to Kellen to end half 7-4. Estevan tore up the field earning a game high 5 fantasy points off 2 goals, an assist, and two Ds. Kellen cleaned up Will’s attempt to sky two pink players and dished it back to Will for the score after half 8-5. CVL caught the disc for the first time towards the end and then threw it away, eventually leading to a pink score to tie the game at 9-9. Universe point did not phase Jimmy (nothing does) as he passed to Estevan to win the game 10-9. John Murphy finished the game -7 in fantasy points despite 2 assists.

Next up was Washington B, who has become, thanks to Pariser and several rainy games, somewhat of a rival. We pulled it together and got fired up to beat them for the first time in the last three match ups. However, by the time I got back from a water run Stanford was inexplicably down 0-2. In response Stanford mounted a 4 point, nay, 3 point run. Excuse me for my stats sheet says BS where UW scored to tie at 3-3 after Kellen was called out of bounds on a Sheehan 'dime' huck. UW seemed to like picking on rookies, but Jamie would not have it, contesting a stall called on him. Arguing is important. Arguments win games. We traded from there to 5-5 at which point UW broke us to 5-6. Donny may have dropped the pull on that point, but as a freshman handler with 2 assists and a goal that early in the game, I personally forgive him. Bobby got a layout D on the next point and Jimmy converted to tie 6-6. UW took half 6-7 but we rattled two off after half to take the lead 8-7.

At 7-7 the point lasted a good 20 minutes during which soft cap was called and included two injury subs and +3 fantasy points for Ed. UW scored on serve to tie 8-8 and then broke us to 8-9 as hard can may or may not have gone on. As I deflected the whining of some UW players on the sideline our glorious captains led a line onto the field and continued play, scoring to tie at 9-9. At this point I agreed with UW's sideline that hard cap may possibly have gone off at some point so there was a good chance this might be universe point, leaving room for argument should Stanford not break UW. My worming proved unnecessary as Kellen got a D then later threw the assist to Estevan to win 10-9.

I should point out (since CVL nicely provided photographic evidence) that DBard / Love Tractor can get really open, Sheehan can wow asian people, Estevan makes a good effort at helping John Murphy's fantasy score, Bobby cleans up well but still get kicked in the balls (not really though), Gage is a pro cutter, and John Murphy can take on the entire opposing defense at once.

The rain started during our third game and combined with the lack of Tourney food energy on the team was down. That didn't stop us from going up 2-0 on Cal Poly San Marcos at their first ever tournament. Until 9-5 us each line played two points in a row and each line scored at least one point. Two of those points were scored by Mitch / Furby sporting paper towel stuffed in his nose to stop the bleeding after an almost Callahan D. Sanjay / Bishop also stepped up and scored two of those points. John Murphy got a D and an assist when we took half 7-2. Gage and Ed's Ds to start the second half weren't enough to stop San Marcos from scoring 2 to 7-4. A few points later at 9-5 CVL threw the disc away twice but that only made him want it more and in return he got a sweet layout D by the endzone. San Marcos scored 3 in a row as exhaustion and weather took their toll on us to bring the score to 9-8. We clamped down with a Sheehan to Murphy score 10-8. In the next long point Stanford turned the disc 8 times (Ed, Bobby, Jimmy, and Murphy) and San Marcos eventually scored 10-9. But that was the last we let them score as Sheehan connected with Cody three times in a row to end the game 13-9.

By the time ANeil flew in on Saturday the games for the day and later the weekend had been cancelled, but Coach David convinced Illinois to put aside their fear of Stanford B and scrimmage us as the sun came out for most of our game. Later that evening, Sheehan questioned Cultimate's organizational abilities at the captains meeting and may be singly responsible for all talk about possible refunds. Before I passed out Saturday the Vets beat the Rookies in a boat race at the party in Izzy's suite. Cody (1 beer) narrowly beat the coaches (1 beer each) in a second contest, but the coaches regained their honor by beating Cody and Donny in a 2v2 boat race a few minutes later.

just what I saw.

*All photography courtesy of Chris VanLang*

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