Skylander VII: Day One

There were a few trends during Saturday’s play that I think I will mention now (this way I don’t have to reiterate this for every game). We began each game down by a score of 2-0 at least. This is not something I’m proud of, but I’m very glad we were able to fight through this in a few games. We received to begin most games and maybe that was the issue. I don’t want to start on defense, but if we can’t score off the bat, let’s at least give our defense a chance to generate a turn and hopefully give use a short field to start with.

Vs. Virginia Tech – B
This game turned out to be a great warm-up for us. I don’t think we came out too fired up for our first game so we were lucky to be playing a “b” team, but we warmed up quickly (after the 2 point deficit) and went on a 10-pts run to take half and more. We eased up a bit towards the end to get a few more players on the field and gave up some easy goals. I think this game should’ve been a warning to us about our issues with containing teams’ deep threats. There were several times when the disc was thrown out to wide-open receivers streaking deep, or we just couldn’t seem to get a good read on a poorly thrown disc and were outmatched in the sky. Our inability to read kept us from getting a few easy scores and even some easy turns in games down the road.

Highlight: 1-3-2-1 Zone defense worked well.
Lowlight: Marking in Man ‘d’ left us with a lot to be desired. Against a team with little to no throwers we should not be getting broken. Breaks were easy to come by for the throwers who knew to look for them.
13-5 Bad Habit

Vs. Slippery Rock
A very intense game. RPI considered this team to be very un-spirited, but I enjoyed the intense style of play that they brought to the table. I marked up on their best cutter (or so I believed him to be) for most of this game and I felt like I kept him under control. He did make a sick layout grab in the back of the endzone while dragging his feet, but if that’s how he has to score his points, then I’m totally fine with that. We started this game a little irritable as they spiked their first two scores after skying their defenders. At this point we called a “most creative spike” rule and proceeded to get our heads back in the game. After we dropped 3-4 on them with accompanying spikes we decided to call it “even” and reign in the sportsmanship. Half was 7-6 Habit with Rock getting the disc back and we went on to trade points until the cap was put on. Universe point at 12s was made more interesting than it needed to be when Brian threw a thumber across the stack (after looking me off for what looked like an easy score) and turned the disc over, we earned back the disc, had an uncharacteristic drop from one of our top players to give the disc back, earned an easy turn, and then I found Peter Walz in the front of the stack with a break-mark backhand to take the win.

Highlight: Staying poised on defense to earn the disc back and punch it in for the win.
Lowlight: There were a few hip-checks from one of the larger members of Rock’s team that might’ve led to the “un-spirited” comments…
13-12 Bad Habit

Vs. RIT
Not much to be said about this game. Drops, throw-aways, and lackluster defense led to a steamrolling of our morale. This was a game we all wish we could have back.

Highlight: It was over quickly….
Lowlight: We need to depend on our handlers to dump and swing the disc. Instead, it seems like we’re depending on a few players to carry us through tough games. That has to stop.
13-1 RIT

Vs. RPI
We came out with a bit more intensity in this game after playing a few mini games prior to the horn. I also played a significant amount of points in this game which might have led to a general growth in confidence across the board. I’m not sure what the reason, but it seems like the guys just play better when I’m on the field with them. I guess the argument could be made for keeping me on the field despite my injuries, and just surrendering a little bit of speed on defense. I’m not trying to be egotistical about this, it’s just hard to argue otherwise after seeing the way we played against a totally overmatched Mercyhurst on Sunday, and the same Slippery Rock team in the semis of the Chumpionship bracket. RPI was a tough team and they played with great patience and spirit. Definitely one of the top games of the weekend!

Highlight: Who has more chest hair for flip, winning rookie and vet pokey-poke, and a huge game of “Wah!” Great spirit by both sides! Oh, and my between-the-legs break throw to get through RPI’s trap zone. John O’Rourke giving Joe Miller a much needed score after Joe ran himself ragged as the rabbit.
Lowlight: I could not dial in my flick-huck to save my life… I dropped 4 or 5 of them onto the hill behind our field.
11-7 Trudge

MVP: Has to be Stills, he was open all day and accounted for at least half of our scores Saturday.
MCP (consistent): Peter Walz... he's a freshman, but he played hard-nosed defense and could be counted on to dump it when he needed to and make smart throws upfield.
Ironman: Jim McMahon played by far the most points of the day, and also during the tournament. He really fought through exhaustion to continue to focus and play at a high level all day.
MIP: Andy "Lemon" Gravunder, another freshman, just picked us up on defense multiple times and was open for easy in cuts all day. His speed is going to eat up a lot of unsuspecting handlers' throws this year. I'm definitely pumped to have him along.