"Saturday as seen by Dave" or "Victory Tastes Like Pumpkin Pancakes, or so I've heard"

Shippensburg, PA- It's open house, but whose house? The weather is crisp and perfect save for a bit of a breeze. In the revamped format, Bad Habit draws a first round bye. Extra hours of sleep gone missing are turned into some extra throws in the wind. Perhaps not such a bad thing... The 2nd round brings the first opponent, the one seed, Messiah. Catholic players recall the Messiah and a man they call "Jesus." His graduation seems to calm those most interested.
Messiah has several players with nice hucks, nice hands, and the dirt on their shirts that indicates a willingness to go horizontal.

Catholic is clean and fresh and play like it. Wimples flying, Bad Habit jumps out to a quick 2-0 lead. This is much appreciated by those who started the previous week 0-2. Riding some big hucks from the Mohawk to the man with more nicknames than scores, Habit continues to take Messiah to task. Habit takes half at 7-4 on the strength of some solid defense and some efficient offense. Peter and John are handling well together and the disc continues to move when the D hasn't forced a turn near the endzone. Messiah puts up some big hucks too, but they always seem to fall just out of reach, or in the hands of a Habit big man. Classics knocks one down before Habit turns to some zone which seems to shake Messiah even more. They continue to look for the second coming, but there is no salvation. Especially not when they are pushing Stills and he catches the scores anyway. Messiah never seemed out of the game, but they also never quite put themselves within striking distance. Habit takes it 11-7 on continued solid all around play.

After the one seed, comes the two. Georgetown looks to be a good match-up from home. Habit again jumps out to a 2-0 lead. The band is playing by now and spirits are high. Statisticians look back for any evidence of Catholic jumping out to 2-0 leads in consecutive games. My weak memory finds no precendent. Habit continues to pull away from Georgetown on continued solid play. The defense is causing turns and the offense is punching it in, sometimes accidentally. With everybody backing up everybody, discs miss intended receivers and find their way into teammates hands. Lucky? Perhaps. At 5-0, Georgetown calls a timeout and revamps their strategy. They bring a 4 person cup, a potentially effective tool in the wind. Habits poppers stagnate for a while, but the handlers continue to move the disc powered by the Mohawk's knee-busting fakes and quick hits through very tight spaces.

This opens up the field and allows for enough movement to keep things going. Georgetown does manage to force a few turns, but looks completely discombobulated on offense. Some credit must go to the Habit defense; they send several looks at Georgetown including a Frodo as rabbit in a 1-3-2-1, but it's clear that Georgetown has seen better days. Their "best" thrower is hardly getting the disc and they don't seem to be looking for an athletic deep at all. There are moments when the wall looks impenetrable. On offense, the sidelines get a little thrill from Dan. In one beautiful series, Dan committed to his dump who headed up the line. Without looking, he popped up a high release backhand. Alan grabbed it out of the air, made a fake and punched it in for a score to a well-timed cutter, I think Kyle. Speaking of Kyle, he tried desperately not to get a Callahan, but the wind begged him to take it, so he acquiesed. Congratulations, Kyle. Georgetown sidelines start to anger, but Habit has little sympathy and rolls to a 10-4 victory.

Giddy, Habit now faces New Jersey. The band played on and dreams of marching straight to the championship start to manifest. Having heard about Habit's first two victories, the general consensus seems to be that New Jersey will roll over and play dead. New Jersey has other plans. They get off to a quick start and Habit looks bad. The defense is porous and the offense can't seem to wait to play porous defense. It's 5-0 before I can polish off a PowerBar. Habit looks exhausted from the first two wins and the day looks like it may be going sour.
Habit does manage to awaken slightly, but is downed 13-4.

Not dwelling on the previous game, Frodo is lifted by the team in what we can only hope is a cheer that will be oft-repeated, "I'm Frodo Baggins. Do it for the Shire!" "FOR THE SHIRE!" Habit is now ready to take on their hosts, Shippensburg. Shippensburg had the look of Ultimate players, but they turned out to be no match for Habit. This game had a bit of everything as The Metz made a little noise on offense, John handled expertly, Classics took a fastbreak opportunity and turned it into nothing, Aaron soared through the air to make a fantastic diving shoulder-smashing grab, Alan broke his mark for the score again and again and again, Lemon let us see his speed on defense, Kyle tipped a disc, cramped up as he made a second effort, snagged the disc just before it hit the ground and took an injury. My favorite moment though had to be the Billy D. His man was making an in cut and looked to be open. The disc went up and Billy unraveled. Reaching his long arms out, he smacked the disc away. Niiice. I'm not sure why so many moments stand out in this game, as it was the same team effort that I saw all day. That's the thing to be most proud of- the way the team worked together, mixed things up on both offense and defense and found ways to win. Habit 11- Shippensburg 6. Go to the brackets.

-Dave