Gang Green vs. Black Monday

By Andy Bandit

Two 0-1 teams faced off on Tuesday night in Men’s League.  Gang Green, captained by Jeff Chai.  And Black Monday, helmed by Rhett Nichols.  The teams appeared pretty evenly matched.  But I wasn’t so much interested in that.  I found it much more intriguing that “green” was actually a rainbow assortment of colors, half different shades of green, and half all sorts of colors that I’m not sure qualified as even having a hint of green in them.  Even Captain Chai was wearing white.  And one of the greens was so dark it could’ve passed for black.  Strange times in Summer League.

The game opened with Black scoring very quickly, but Green answered right back with a Chai to Penguin combo and it was 1-1.  Then relatively soon after 2-2.  Mike Chang hit Josh Levi on a 20 year flick to give Black a 3-2 lead, and Mikey Pereira slid one down the line to Rhett to make it 4-2.  Green went to the huck, with Jon Morgenstern sending it deep to Chai covered by two Black defenders, but they couldn’t connect.  They tried it again, and this time the huck sailed out of bounds, but it was called back on a foul, so they mixed it up, and it was Chai’s turn to air it out to Jon, but Rhett blocked that one.  Green kept forcing Black turns though and finally settled on a boring short pass, Chai to Brad Weyers to make it 4-3.  Corey Sanford found Mikey for a short pass to the corner, 5-3 Black.  Green came right back.  Jon to Ariel Kumpinksy to make it 5-4.

This is when I noticed the awesome fact about Gang Green.  They had five left-handed players!!!  And there were only nine Green players at this game, so unless my math is wrong, that’s exactly half!  That’s pretty cool.  How do you force flick against this team?  You just can’t.  It’s physics.

(editor’s note: Green, in fact, has six lefties on their team.  There are only 12 total in all of Men’s League.)

Green scored to tie it 5-5.  And then something really interesting happened. A magical fairy came down and blessed each team with one more point, and it was suddenly 6-6.  You see, even though there was a guy on the sideline clearly taking notes on the game, nobody asked him the score.  And thus… it was written.  6-6.

Green scored again when Jon aired out a pretty bomb to Chai, who hit Penguin to make it 6-5 Green.  Ahem, 7-6 Green. And Black called a time out.  Corey hucked it to Mikey, but Ben “Flying Squirrel” Ingram had a nice sky D.  Black got it back and Rhett caught a huck in the back of the end zone that was questionably in, but Chai showed some great spirit and put his hands up signaling the score.  We’re tied 7-7.  Green then went on their run, which began with two scores to end the half 9-7.

Green kept rolling at the start of the 2nd with Brad Rosen (not that one, the other one) catching an easy wide open pass for 10-7.  Black got one back, and put on the zone for the first time.  It worked, but after Black turned it, they strangely abandoned the zone and Green reeled off two more points.  Now 12-8 Green.  Black scored when Paul Lee threw a short pass
to Rhett, and they tried the zone again.  But again gave it up after a turn, and allowed huck happy Jon to find Chai for 13-9.  Black regrouped.  Go to what you know.  Condor to Condor.  Rhett sent a huge forehand missile to Corey and it was 13-10.

Now Black committed to the zone, and they’d stay with it the rest of the game.  Green managed to break through it at first on the strength of a huck that could easily be called a punt, and when Adam Pfendt got a run through D, Green was close enough to the end zone to get an easy score.  14-10.  Black now went on their run.  Mostly thanks to that zone.  Four straight scores, culminating with a Corey shovel pass to Rhett capped the comeback at 14s.  Now I’ve got two games that are both tied, cause at this moment the Co-ed game on the other field was tied at 11s.  I couldn’t watch both games simultaneously.  I really needed picture in picture.  Or maybe a Summer League Tivo system.  Cause this was too much action for one man and a spiral notepad.

Green ended the run when Penguin hit Brad Rosen to recapture the lead 15-14.  Corey had a crazy double bobble and then suddenly snagged the disc out of the air one-handed like Mr. Miyagi catching flies with chopsticks.  He hit Mikey on a 20 yard pass to tie it again at 15s.  Chai defeated Black’s zone with an inspiring cross field hammer to Adam, and a couple passes later the same two hooked up to give Green game point at 16-15.

Black turns it.  Jon hucks it to Chai, and it went just beyond his dive.  Black moves it up the field, but loses it on a close out of bounds call.  And Penguin finishes the contest with a score to Adam halfway back in the end zone, and it ended 17-15 Green.

A great game.  Really impressive on both sides.  But I think the most impressive thing is how I wrote an entire recap and never referred to Jeff Chai as……. well, you know.

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