The weekend started out against GOAT, a tough and somewhat familiar opponent looking to regain their swagger on the National scene. Basically a month or two ahead of US teams in terms of their season, GOAT already had several successful tournaments under their belt as they gear up for the Canadian Ultimate Championships (CUC) on August 11 and the associated opportunity to represent Canada at the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) 2012 World Ultimate Championship in Japan next summer.
As the game progressed and Madison began to work its legs, the lack of efficient d line pressure and the season to date experience for GOAT emerged as a reoccurring storyline for this game. The Canadians were able to continually complete easy around resets and over the top breaks against a raw Madison Club d line working together at game speed for just the first time all season. Madison also had a difficult time converting breaks on defense as GOAT certainly gave up many opportunities. GOAT wins 15-11 and the season is officially under way.
Game two on the day was against Boost Mobile from Palo Alto, California; a tall, young, boisterous team made up of primarily Stanford guys. Madison jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with amazingly smooth o-line play and a break off of a sweet d on a Boost bomb. The good times wouldn’t last though as several questionable hucks by Madison either fell incomplete or were misread and more ‘boosts’ by Boost found open hands bringing the halftime score to 8-6 Madison. The Madison Captains urged intensity and two second half adjustments – increase the defensive pressure and tighten the offense on both sides of the disk - and the team responded the rest of the way leading to the first victory of the season. Madison wins 14-10.
The last game of the day came against Sub Zero, our long-time sectional and regional rival. Both teams sensed the importance of this game, but perhaps one team wanted it more than the other and the game was pretty much decided in the end by intensity and desire. Sub Zero wins on universe point 13-12.
The day ended on an off note, and the team was reminded about the importance of focus, picking up your team mates and responding with energy and desire when the chips are down. After a soak in the creek, the local mountainside stream running through town, Madison called it a day and returned to the very strange Broker Inn/Roadway Inn for some r&r.
Sunday morning came early with an 830am start time against Washington DC’s Truck Stop; last years 5th place finisher at Club Nationals. A new day brought a new attitude of determination, focus and intensity, which was missing from the previous day and proved to be a big factor against Truck. The o-line handlers Alex Simmons, Jon Masler and Jadon Scullion moved the disk with precision to the attacking cutters underneath and punched the disk in with skillful end zone patience, while the d-line finally showed life with a big layout d by John Reynolds resulting in a MC break and a halftime score of 8-7 Truck. The battle continued into the second half with Madison breaking and finally taking the lead 9-8. The two teams would trade up to 12’s when a critical play in the game occurred. While going after an up line look Jon Masler got creamed by an out of control Truck defender who, according to the observer, somehow neither fouled Masler nor meant to knock him out for the rest of the tournament. Truck seizes on the turn of momentum as the rattled Club o-line handlers can’t clamp down and can’t connect on the unders. Truck takes it 15-13, though victory was in sight for Madison in this one.
Next up came LA Renegade and an opportunity to take out some frustration for Madison against an unknown team. The breaks came early and often and the good times started to roll with lockdown defense and big jacks by the d-line. At half came a request for focus and a return to the objectives and Madison runs to the end with an easy 15-8 victory.
The last game of the weekend was against Johnny Bravo and Madison came out on its heels. Perhaps it was fatigue or the altitude or whatever, but the Madison o-line simply couldn’t put the pieces together and after several time-outs and attempts to regroup, Madison found itself lackluster and down 6-2. The reeling o-line turned to the d-line for support and the Club defenders responded by injecting life into the sidelines, breaking several times with big bombs by Mike Lun and pulling the half time score to 8-7 Johnny Bravo. Game on. Just like the Truck Stop game, the second half turned into an epic battle with both teams making big plays and stepping up their game, though the Madison desire looked greater coming into the home stretch, with Club grabbing control of the possession late into the game. The dam nearly broke as the Madison d-line forced a big turn and marched it up the field with their eyes on the prize and the end zone in sight, however an mistimed end zone look went right into the hands of a Bravo defender and onwards to a Bravo bomb and score, 12-11 JBrovo. Unfortunately, the Madison o-line, victimized by dwindling numbers and a changing rotation, lost rhythm trying to jam it up the line and Bravo again got a big d and a bigger break, 13-11 Bravo. The two teams trade to end with Bravo finally taking it 14-12.
Madison Club came into the weekend with goals of working on our offensive and defensive sets, developing a team identity and player roles, having a good time and winning some big games. We left Boulder feeling both very excited about the strides we made on the weekend as a whole and with a desire to learn to close out big games down the stretch and we’re eagerly looking forward to a productive three-week span before our next tournament, The Chesapeake Open on August 27&28. We also have an exciting opportunity to play the boys from the NexGen tour on Friday the 5th and we hope to see you cheering us on!