Roll Call: Will the real Bad Habit please stand up?

Bad Habit barely snuck into Roll Call this year after amassing big victories at Huck of the Irish over a huge Vermont team, Air Force, and Pitt-Johnstown. Of course, it took a letter detailing our victories this year and contrasting the desire and determination of a 2008 Bad Habit team vs. that of a 4-13 CUltimAte in 2007 to convince the Roll Call TDs of that. Our record and this newly-found recognition speak volumes about the character of this team.

Roll Call was looking to finally be a testing ground for Catholic after getting snubbed out of a big day at HoTI by the rain and wind. We were looking at pool play opponents of Virginia Commonwealth (Looking to extend a 3-game win streak against us), Pennsbury High school, Penn State (Who ran their mouths all week about deserving a #1 seed), and the #1 seed and Sectional rival George Washington.

Day 1
Pool play started off as expected by crushing an under-manned VCU team. Our speed and deep attacks forced the Biscuit Villains into setting a zone that was easily navigated by our handlers and persistent popping by Lemon, Stills, and Jim. 13-5 Habit

The chatter coming from Penn State the week prior sounded like they were going to be pumped up and ready to prove themselves this weekend. Still pissed about missing out on a #1 seed, they seemed anxious to prove that they deserved one. Of course, the lowly Catholic U team wasn’t going to stand in their way… It seemed that way at half after PSU took it 7-4. I went down with an injury to my knee early in the game and was still trying to work it out as stayed in the game until I came back in. My reentry into the game marked the beginning of two PSU breaks right before half. Habit has a history with comeback wins this year, as Metz will tell you, and we poised to strike. At 8-6 the cap went on, meaning a game to 10. PSU broke us and scored the next point and looked ready to end it with another ‘d.’ Jared had an “out-of-body/Gladiator” moment and decided he would start catching discs, I did my best to tell myself to calm down my hucks, and the rage Arin was about to release on defense was everything like that of a cornered animal. We took our offensive possession to make it 9-7 and then set a zone. They worked the disc fluidly until their captain settled for a big blade-like flick into the endzone that was just crushed by Arin. I scrambled to give Jared a deep look and he let sail a big backhand into the PSU endzone. It was a little high, but State doesn’t have too many large defenders, so I easily sky’d 2 of their guys to make it 9-8. Frustration was running high on Spank’s sidelines now. Another defense in the zone put us in striking distance again and a well-placed flick from Jared to myself evened the score at 9’s. *This is where we stopped playing good Ultimate and just got lucky* We managed a ‘d’ in our endzone and I picked up a disc. I forgot everything I had told myself about hucking the disc and put up an ill-advised flick to Jared upwind. Somehow Jared decided he would play the deflection and he set up just behind his defender. The disc barely scraped off a Spank player and we had our own immaculate reception. After a few resets I put the disc into the hands of a bounding Rabbit for the score and the win. 10-9 Habit

Pennsbury High School was an all-around solid game by the Habit as we spent most of the game hucking to Arin and Lemon for easy scores. We lost Stills this game to an injury, and there were several moments of excitement (such as finding Arin’s contact after he lost it laying out HUGE for a score!), but all-in-all it was very similar to the VCU game. 13-4 Habit

George Washington was on our minds the instant we saw our schedules. Knowing previous results of our 4th games on Saturday, we knew we were going to have a tough time putting together any kind of a game for them today. We had big play on defense, but just couldn’t get our offense running as we silently finished our big day losing 4-13.