Revolver – Labor Day Championships – Day 2 (Sunday, September 4, 2011)
An 8:00a game time today invited an even thicker fog so that we lost track of coverage assignments a couple of times in the first game. Of course, by late morning the sun appeared and summoned a light to medium breeze over the proceedings. After suffering a migraine during the night, Russell Wynne took the day off to recover.
Game 4 – 8:00a v. Voodoo (Seattle)
Ben Wiggins, a figurehead of three-time national champion Seattle Sockeye, now coaches the young Voodoo squad, a leadership change that has already translated into improved poise and new strategic approaches. Revolver, on the other hand, was upset about unmet expectations from Saturday — unfortunately the yellow and black crew from Seattle would be the first team of the field to receive the backlash. Up 8-2 at the turn (Sam Kanner insisted on playing every D point of the half, before taking the entire second half off), we mostly traded the rest of the way for a sound 15-7 win, ending with a defensive break from Ryo Kawaoka to Taylor Cascino. Top performers: Devon Anderson (3 goals), Bart Watson (4 assists), and several players with a block each.
Game 5 – 9:45a v. Southpaw (Philadelphia)
The first half of this game featured only one break by each team, but we led 8-7 by virtue of receiving to start the game. Robbie Cahill caught a particularly nice sky goal on a floating throw from Cassidy Rasmussen. Kanner earned a nice layout point block for himself. Jake Rainwater of Southpaw also came up with a great high grab over Mac Taylor for one of their goals. After halftime, we pulled and broke Southpaw three consecutive times with some zone defense and a clean-up-the-trash reception by Jon Levy after Mac’s huck eluded a cluster of players in the end zone. Taylor Cascino helped generate another break with a horizontal layout block on a pass attempt through the cup. We won 15-10 on the strength of our efficient O-line (only one turnover in the game), and our D-line in the second half. Top performers: Beau Kittredge (3 goals), Bart Watson (4 assists), Sam Kanner (2 blocks).
Downtime
A three-way tie atop Pool A between Revolver, Chain Lightning, and Furious George resolved on point differential with Chain on top and Revolver in the other semifinal. We watched two pool play games from Pool B in our four-hour bye to determine our opponent, as a lot hung in the balance for several teams: Sockeye vs. Rhino on one field and Doublewide vs. PoNY next door. Sockeye would advance to semis for sure, but if they lost to Rhino they’d come in second in their pool; if they won, they’d go undefeated in the pool and take first (and meet Revolver). Last-seeded Rhino would take the top spot (and meet Revolver) if they defeated Sockeye (head-to-head tiebreaker) but fall out of semis with a loss and a Doublewide victory. Doublewide needed to beat PoNY and hope for a Rhino loss, as they held the head-to-head tiebreaker over Rhino. So… Doublewide won their game convincingly and then came over to watch the time-capped finish on the adjacent field. Rhino had been down 9-7, scored on offense, then broke to knot it at 9-9. They pulled to Sockeye, who worked it downwind until a turnover led to Dylan Freechild putting away the thrilling double-game point win for Rhino, meaning they would be our semifinal opponent.
Game 6 – 3:00p v. Rhino (Portland, OR) – Semifinal
Rhino has improved a lot over the past couple of years spent revamping the program. Old Revolver teammate Seth Wiggins is back and in fine form plus they have several young studs (including a couple of NexGen characters) to lead the team into the future. But why wait for the future when they can come back today from the sixth seed in their pool to win the top spot in the bracket?! We pulled to start, but Rhino turned it over upwind after a few throws. Then Martin Cochran threw a turnover before quickly redeeming himself with a Callahan goal to open the scoring! His mark cut underneath but couldn’t handle a high throw, then the disc basically fell into Martin’s chest. After that we traded and added a couple of extra breaks by our D-line, until at 7-5 Rhino broke back. We earned the halftime lead of 8-6 and cruised the rest of the way for a 15-8 victory and a berth in the finals. Ashlin Joye, Beau, and Patrick Baylis all stood out for memorable sky Ds. Top performers: Devon Anderson (3 goals), Cassidy Rasmussen (4 assists), and several players with a block each.
Game 7 – 4:45p v. Chain Lightning (Atlanta) – Final
Chain beat Sockeye on double-game point when Alex Nord dropped a tipped disc in the endzone that he couldn’t adjust for in time. Chain launched a huck deep into the wind and came down with it, yielding a pool play rematch in the finals and chance for us to avenge the dispiriting loss from Saturday. Chain broke first after a turnover by Cassidy, but we then scored and forced two breaks in our favor. At one point, Chain swung to the upwind sideline and Greg Swanson (?) turned to rip a backhand upwind, but our own Jon Levy charged and dove full-extension with both hands and knocked it twenty yards out of bounds, leading to another break. We took half 8-4 after Ashlin came down with another 50/50 block in the endzone then threw the goal to Martin Cochran the other direction. We traded a couple of points and after scoring to take a 9-6 lead the Revolver D-line decided to wrap it up with 5 breaks in a row to seal the title and successfully defend our Labor Day championship from last season. On the last two points Eric Halverson swiped an anticlimactic Callahan goal (perhaps making up for the one he threw against Rhino) on a flat dump pass after a nice forehand pull, then threw an upwind hammer to Baylis on the next point for the 15-6 win. Top performers: Robbie Cahill (4 goals), Bart Watson (3 assists).
Just like last year’s Labor Day experience, Revolver elevated its performance after a tough Saturday afternoon loss. We know that we still have not played our best game, though, and watching Chain Lightning run wind sprints after the finals demonstrated that they are already working to get better. As Coach Dutchy reminded us in the post-game huddle, “Championships are won by the team that improves the most in September and October.” Everyone starts fresh in the playoffs.