When: March 16-17, 2002
Who: 12 Juniors teams
Result: 4-2, reached finals
Pool Play:
11-4 victory over Brutal Grassburn
3-11 loss to Paideia
11-3 victory over Woodward JV
Quarters:
10-9 win over CHUF
Semis:
12-6 win over Cardinal Gibbons
Finals:
3-15 loss to Paideia
Spirit award: Thomas Konneker
Comments:
First game against Brutal was nothing special. Heaving rain fell for about 10 minutes which made things interesting, but we were able to capitalize more on BG's mistakes than vice-versa. Of course we knew that the second game was going to be the toughest one of the day. After all, Paideia had been undefeated in juniors play for something like 3 years. However, I'm proud to say we stood up to the challenge. Even though the score does not reflect it, we made them run and run and run and forced many turnovers. Bad thing is we weren't able to convert on them. This game was also the turning point of the tournament because we adopted from Paideia the "L-stack". We successfully used this formation in our short-pass offense which got us to the finals. Last game on Saturday was a nice cool-down game. I don't really remember much since I sat out most of it.
So saturday night I find out at the party that we are the 6 seed! We go 2-1 in pool play and we're the 6 seed!!! Cool thing was we got to play our old buddies CHUF (3 seed). Now, we had beaten these guys 15-6 early on in the season so we were feeling pretty confident. We start out the game with a 3-0 run. We're feeling all good and BAM, they put this humongous 6-0 run together capped by a perfect hammer from Josh Torell to Matt Everson. We trade some points and it's 7-4. We call timeout. Chip has a nice little talk w/ us about how we're SUCKING (he confessed to me later that he thought we were going to lose). We come out of timeout. We string like 15 passes together and score: 7-5. CHUF scores on a sick layout by Zack Washburn: 8-5. Cap is called. Game to 10. We gotta dig deep. We resort to the icy, chilly O offense of short 5 yard passes. It takes like 20 of these to march down the field, but we execute it w/ perfection. We capitalize on every CHUF turnover. I could tell those guys were getting scared. We complete another 3-0 run to make it 8-8. This game was so exciting that we had lots of players from other teams watching, yelling on the sideline...Chuf manages to break our run to make it 9-8. Game point for them. We respond. 9-9. Next point wins. Chuf starts moving the disc downwind but turns it over. We start moving it back upwind. I see Bill Ladd streaking towards the front left cone. I throw a 30 yard backhand. Rejected. Chuf starts working again downwind. Bad pass. We trade turnovers for a few more points. Chuf gets close one time and puts one down the sideline near the endzone but it goes out of bounds. I start the disc in the corner being forced like crazy by Josh Torell who has made numerous hand blocks on me before. But we slowly work it up, gaining 3-5 yards of space each time. Bill Ladd gets it about 5 yards from the endzone, marked by James Ellis. Suddenly, he notices Thomas Konneker in the corner wide open. Bill puts up a perfect slow backhand that Thomas eagerly devours. Game over. Wait, shit, there was a call made. James Ellis called an injury before the throw but he was in no position to affect the throw. Then, in one of the most stunning moments I've ever seen in my experience as a player, Zack Washburn speaks up, "He made the injury call, but I don't think it affected the play. It should be your point." This true display of sportsmanship ended the game on a very positive note. This was by far the most exciting game I've ever been a part of.
We have a bye. Then we find out that we will play our crosstown rivals Cardinal Gibbons. Game starts out well for us. We go up 4-2. The L-Stack is really working. We flow the disc beautifully down the field. Ian Pratt does a nice job of neutralizing Max Poston deep and Marty Schlesinger plays solid D on Ricky, CG's other deep threat. Meanwhile, David Liu and I are working like rabbits to keep the disc out of Andy Jones and James Murray's hands, CG's two main handlers. For some reason, CG doesn't have it going today. We pull away easily, winning 12-6. Afterwards, all the NC teams get together and form a spirit circle. We talk about how far NC Juniors ultimate has come and how it sucked that we had to take each other out in the quarters and semis of the tournament. CHUF and CG wish us the best of luck in the finals versus...you guessed it Paideia.
This last game was a forgetful one. We started out leading 1-0, but it was all downhill from there. Too much stellar play from Dylan Tunnel, Will Thompsen, and Jolian Dahl. They threw a very tight zone at us, which we only managed to break once. Most of the starters sat out the 2nd half. Final score: 15-3
All in all, Terminus was a very good tournament for us. The only two losses we suffered were to perennial powerhouse Paideia. Terminus also pretty much guaranteed our acceptance into Nationals.