Round Robin W's (Wins and Woes)

Our first round robin of the Spring 09 season has us in need of some serious chemistry on the field. We filmed 8 GB worth of game footage, but at first glance all I'm finding is an abundance of on field blunders.

Our first game started off fast for George Mason, who capitalized on early throwing errors, drops, and misscommunication to jump to a 5-0 lead. Most of the early errors were the fault of our upper level players, with myself taking ownership for 1 bad throw, 2 drops, and a premature flick to an incut that decided to head deep. We did manage to pull in a few points to make it 7-2 at half. At this point it was very obvious to all what we needed to work on, so we turned our focus to the fundamentals on offense and mixing it up a bit on defense. We came out with a very bland dump and swing vert stack and managed to get a few points early. The upwind/downwind scenario is typical in the DC area, so we needed to take away easy downwind scores. We managed that with a decent-looking force middle that took away a few easy throws and forced GMU to toss the disc around more than they'd like. With time running down in the round, we managed to bring the score to 11's on the cap. Universe point began with Habit pulling upwind. Our FM defense managed two turns before our offense clicked and found a streaking Still's for the game winner. 12-11 over GMU.

LC Bird high school came next and the game started almost identical to the first. Bird went up 3-0 early on offensive mistakes before we settled down again. Our goals for this game was to focus on our zone defense, work the disc patiently on offense, and get a few of our endzone plays in the game. Everything went fairly smoothly, but we were still able to produce quite a few blunders this game too. 13-7over Bird.

VCU was up next and we sort of have a history against these guys. We've typically struggled against them in round robins, but crushed when it comes to tournament time. This time was no different. I stepped out of this game since I was having problems with my heel, and Jess's bf John cleated up to help us out. The score was basically back and forth the whole game with us maintaining a bit of breathing room to the end. There were good plays by Ranjo, a huck to Frodo's lip that he caught, and a few other funny moments that resulted in a 12-9 victory.

By the time we hit our final game Sunday it was obvious that only 5-8 of our players have seen the practice field regularly. People were wearing out and bench time was at a premium. ODU had a fairly efficient, if unorthodox, style of offense and seemed to move the disc well against our tired defense. In the end it was their lack of discipline that led to a few late scores and a universe point win 12-11.

Overall I'd say this weekend was successful for two reasons. The younger players on our roster managed to get a decent amount of playing time, we got 4 wins under our belts, and we came away with a boat load of skills to work on for this season. It was nice to have a full team to play with for once.. practicing with 5-8 players has just been horrible for the last two months.