PRETTY IN PINK vs. FOREST MOON OF ENDOR
by Mark Hartford

The theme of the night at the wonderful Venice fields was runs.  Runs to the bathroom, runs to put more marker discs out, runs through the mud pit and ironically, runs of scoring.  With a skeleton crew of women (three), Forest opened up with a 3-1 run, using some tricky zone and taking advantage of Simon Margolis’ aggressive poaching.

Pink was not to go silently into that good night and went on a 5 point run to take the lead 6-3.  With their heads hung low, Forest took a timely time out to regroup, and while wondering how to slow down Pink’s clockwork offense, out of the dark side of the field an object approacheth…as it finally reached the working floodlight it was none other than Katie Killebrew-Forest’s fourth woman and the preemptive MVP of the night (she DID win regionals, don’t forget).  Seeing those pearly white teeth and freckly cheeks lit a spark in Forest Moon, and they scored 5 unanswered points to take half 8-6 with some huge hucks from Katie and some great grabs my Mike Margala and Mark Dalmacio.

With Pink reeling, captain Jessica Felleman must have seen Braveheart recently, because after the inspirational speech she gave at halftime Pink played as if their freedom was on the line, and they quickly scored 2 to tie it with a monster huck from Michelle Andrews to Simon streaking from the wing.

Forest was not quite ready to lay down however, and answered back plus more with some Jedi awareness by Rob Armstrong, bringing the score to 12-10 Forest.  As the theme of the night indicates, it was then Pink’s turn to go on their run, and run they did - getting 3 ‘run’ through D’s in consecutive points.  At 14-13 Pink, Forest had a costly turn and a tricky inside-out forehand floats out of reach for Jessica, but Lauren Silverman runs it down and keeps Pink unbeaten at 4-0.

RED M&Ms vs. JERRY BROWN
by Chad Woodard

It was a beautiful night under the lights on the perfectly manicured pitch in Reseda (read with sarcasm).  We’ll there must’ve been no Boston teams on the TV Monday night because the whole Uhl family was there - Keegan, Martha, and Buzz.  Red took advantage of early turnovers and started out 3-0 before Brown patiently worked it in.  Red took half 8-3 and it had the feel of a laugher.

Red started on offense the second half and Brown adjusted their zone to a 1-3 wall with the big guy doing most of the chasing.  (At least that’s what I think it was because Red turned it over on their 1st or 2nd throw on the next two points before the zone was even set - now that’s intimidation).  Three quick points later and it was 8-6.  Red finally settled down and figured out the zone. It would stay close to the end until red rounded it out to take it 15-10.

Plays of note: Red was short on guys and Brown was short on women.  The fatigue led to several late poach Ds for both teams.  Red really spread the love and it seemed nearly every player caught or threw a goal.  MA threw about 10 hammers - 1 nearly half the field length against the zone.  Play of the game: Keegan had a monster pull that looked like it had the potential to land across the 101 but ran out of spin and came back to land deep in the end zone.  Everyone was in such awe watching it float that the offense wasn’t near it to pick it up and the zone wasn’t even close to setting up yet.

WHITESNAKE vs. ROYAL WEDDING
by Andy Bandit

This was one of the best games to be involved in.  There’s nothing better than a back-and-forth Inser/Mahut-type match with multiple lead changes, and both teams having their backs to the wall.  They always say it comes down to who wants it more.  But sometimes, I honestly think it just comes down to pure ridiculous luck.  Something both teams definitely got the benefit of down the wire.

My memory of games I play in is admittedly terrible when it comes to who scored what point when, but I do remember the running score.  Royal jumped out immediately 2-0, and held that margin to 4-2 when White went on a 4-point run to take the 6-4 advantage.  Royal closed the gap to 6-5 but two more White scores gave the largest lead of the night, White taking half 8-5.

White was feeling pretty good at half-time (so good that Drea actually played a couple points in the 2nd half!) , and I think we believed we’d keep rolling up the score, (from co-captain Remy’s mantra of one point at a time) but those good feelings didn’t last when Royal methodically pulled out a 4-1 run to tie it back up at 9-9.  And so it went from that point.  10-10.  11-11.  12-12.  13-13.  Noone gave an inch in this game.

Then came two lucky points.  The first helped out White when an errant throw was macked twice in the air and I was lucky enough to be in the right spot to pull it down, and we managed to score to take game point 14-13.  But Lady Luck goes both ways.  (Which is pretty hot.)  White had our first chance to end it when we got the disc back, but a turn-over gave Royal the disc deep in their own territory.  Royal was undaunted and moved it sure-handedly up the field until an overthrow to Alex Korb was D’d by Matt Hennessy… right back into Korb’s hands, and they capitalized on the good fortune to tie at 14’s.  Overtime.

A White drop produced a Royal score, and now they had it game-point 15-14.  And when White turned it over around mid-field, I thought that might be it.  But White’s D was relentless.  Alex David, generously listed at 5′8″, had a sick run-through layout block to help give white a 15-15 tie.

Something happened that I honestly can’t remember that gave us the disc back and White re-captured the lead again 16-15.  And literally right as another Royal throw away gave White the disc with a chance to finish it, the lights made it a moot point and the marathon contest ended with Whitesnake taking it by a nose.  Very fortuitous, cause who knows what might’ve happened in that crazy game.

Royal was a formidable opponent.  With a combination of Korb’s ability to outjump much taller players, the crafty veterans Carl Edwards and Mike Bell both running rings around us, unstoppable handler play from Enway Hsu and Beth Lopour, and Poppin’s steady stream of incredible catches (hmmm, I wonder who told me not to pick her?) Royal is a damn good team.  And I know they were missing a couple of their strong guys.

From the White team, a huge shout out to my co-captain Remy who played like freakin’ Athena, Greek goddess of war (and the parthenogenic daughter of Zeus) out there.  Layout sideline catches, sick break-marks for scores, and she caught everything, no matter how bad the throws were to her.  Inspiring, especially from someone nursing a foot injury.

YELLOWBEARD vs. WHITE ZOMBIE
a short note from Ben Cohen

White played really hard with only 6 players, Yellow decided to make it a game and only fielded 6 even though they had a team of 14.  The game was a pretty exciting one with Yellow taking the half at 9-5, but by midway through the second half White had made it even at 10.  Yellow broke away with superior numbers to win it 17-14.  But it was not without a true fight from white.  Can not wait to face them again during the tourney.

NEXT RECAP

PREVIOUS RECAP