Last night we stayed in a local congregational church that was built back in 1920. To save some cash and spend some more time together, we had an amazing pasta dinner together. The nights festivities began with stefan taking off his shirt, and busting out a beautiful "happy birthday" to Julie who turned 22. Others climbed on the roof, while still others checked out champaign and did a little iceskating... Ask Neal about that one.
Most of the crowd was asleep by 10pm and despite a crazy annoying beep that luke Peterson tried to kill, we all slept well and a little late. Thinking we had a game at 8:30am, and being more than 20 minutes from the fields, we got up around 6:45... Little did we know that all the pool winners had a first round bye. So, we had about two hours before our game so while the ladies found their fields locked down in champaign, we boys enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning breakfast at Dunkin and Hardees. The ladies eventually were able to get onto their fields and after a first round loss, our ladies were into the 5th place Bracket. At this point I am unsure who they beat to get through the 5th place semis, but they ended up taking fifth place over someone and at least Illinois (13-0).
The tounament finish for our girls was good, especially considering the weather they were thrown (30-40mph gusts and light rain to start the morning).
The boys arrived back at the fields around 9:15 and got to the business of warming up with intentionality. The winds at this point were only beginning to pick up with gusts around 10-15mph. All of our fields were running accross the wind making there no clear advantage going either up or down the field.
First up was Iowa first split squad in the quarters. They came out with sound fundamental and clear intention of being a team dedicated to work the disc slowly and methodically through our cup to score... Sadly (for them), this strategy was lacking because our cup, though allowing multiple breaks through it, forced too many passes for the wind that was blowing across our fields. The gusts were now getting into the 30-35mph range and though still just across the field; we would trap them on the sideline and eat their attempts to crash the cup. Now, we did not have this strategy. From the very first touch of our warm up, I employed a different strategy that was not going to rely on sound fundamental or patience. We were going to jack the disc deep every single time we were less than 20/30 yards from the endzone. It didn't matter if their was a reciever or not. And holy crap did this piss off Iowa. Their main handler became increasingly frustrated and more than a few times on the sideline said, "come on guys, this team fu$king sucks!". We broke them first and after a few more I was completely inside this guys head... He called a travel a few times on jake, kuni while on the goal time, and even me twice before I finally called one on him. I was an idiot though and called "foul" as he called the same on me. I said, "I'm sorry, I meant to say 'travel'", to which he flipped out and said, "you called 'foul' and cannot change your call". I disgreed and forced him to take the disc back. He threw it away and I then jacked it deep and two passes later we scored. As he and I passed each other following the point, he said, "that was fuc@ing bullshit. Learn how to play college ultimate". I walked up to him with a smile on my face and in an attempt to cool him down, put my hands on his shoulder. He immediatly through my hands off him and said, "get the fu&k off me!". I backed off and decided that being in his head was alright. We would win the game 12-5.
Next up was Illinois X and we employed the same strategy as before, but this time we elected to be more fair to our rookies and give them a chance to price themselves. To the point of even lossing the game if it so be it, we divided our returners into and O set and D set. The rookies would take 3 or 4 spots on the line each time no matter what. They played so well and all began to step it up. Illinois would get the first break, but before the half was taken we fought back to take it at 7-5 right before soft came on to force the game to 9. Coming out on d, our line was able to break them after nearly 10minutes. The same line stayed in for game point. Burke pulled the disc and forcing another turn, burke picked up and his justin up the line and seconds later Tony had the game winning grab and this game us the birth to the finals.
Illinois Y tried to fight off the other Iowa team in the other semis and couldn't get the needed W. Or would Iowa and north park in the finals.
We would loss the flip, but get what we wanted by being on offense first. We had figured with the winds now up to 40mph gusts and steady blow of at least 20mph, that the game might not get to half and even if it did, the game would go to hard cap. We start by scoring first, then we would win as long as we never for broken.
The first point Iowa broke us despite having two goal line attempts. We would score next and then give up an easy one. They would get their second break and their sidelines poured onto the field feeling they had secured not only the momentum, but the eventual victory. We were not done fighting, but had also said that we would not call lines any different than the last game. If we were going to win things it would not be because our returners did all the work. We would bring or back to 3-3 next, but we traded points all the way to 6-6. With a chance to get the break again, we choked and then realized we had not figured out whether this would be a game to 13 (and thus it should be half) or if it should be to 15 (which we prefered because softcap had already sounded ). With the game already decided to go to 9, we flipped for the choice and they won. It would be half at that point and we had to break or face losing in 5 minutes because of hard cap.
We pulled the disc and were able to get the turn but were a long way off the fields. I wasn't on to provide the huge huck but it didn't matter cause stefan took charge and jacked the disc deep. The Iowa sideline nearly caught the disc thinking it was going out, but somehow justin came down with the disc. Justin dished it and got it back quick inches off the goal line. A quick argument over whether he was in or not ensued and then the next moment with over 5 Iowa guys crowding the goal line John Krat was able to pull the disc in from justin and we were at 7 all! Hard cap was looming and it looked as though this might just be universe point...
10.25/26.2008 - Fallout - Lost Boys (Championship final point) from luke johnson on Vimeo.
I stepped on the field with Stefan, Abram, Justin, Burke, Tony, and Luke Peterson (playing in his final NPU tournament). We knew what we had to do. We were able to pin Iowa on the sideline but they had adopted the same strategy as we had. Their main handler wound up and threw it out of bounds. We tried to convert and with the chance to go up 8-7, we dropped the disc on the goal line after I threaded it through their cup. This actually worked out to be in our advantage because after another few seconds hard cap blew. They would throw it deep this time and get massive yardage as I couldn't get to their sideline guy who recieved the pass in time. He dished it to one of their less talented guys and I got right tight on him with the mark. He would throw it away after a lengthy debate over whether his pass was caught or hit ground first. I would throw it deep one more time, but their cup made it impossible for me to rip the desired backhand. I launched a flick deep but it sailed out on the sideline a good 20 yards up from the endzone. We clamped down hard with Stefan on the mark and Abram on the point. Their handler wanted to huck it but the mark was too straight up and thus he swung it directly into the wind. One of the less experienced handlers from Iowa then, with an open look, couldn't resist hucking it backhand. Unfortunately his throw was too weak and it bladed badly as it was released as an outside in. It traveled no more than 25 yards.
This would be the last point played. I got into position as quickly as I could and picked up the disc for a backhand huck, but they again forced me flick with the wind coming across left to right. I saw Stefan and threw up a prayer pretty early in the count. In that moment Stefan came up bigger than he has ever come up before (at least in my two years playing with him). Timing it perfectly Stefan pulled the disc down over his guy a few steps into the endzone. His face was that of pure joy and following a massive spike, North Park celebrated it's second fall tournament championship.
