Chesapeake write-up

luke said...

where is the chesapeake write up?

Luke, fine question. Of course, it would be much easier for me to do a write-up if I had actually been there. It has been very frustrating missing tournaments this 'fall'. In the last few years, I had only missed sectionals up to this point, but a combination of factors caused me to miss both the Colorado Cup and the Chesapeake Open. But that doesn't mean I can't write something up...

So, it was a rainy Saturday morning when the tournament started. DoG was overall #1 seed by virtue of it's victory over Pike at the premier East Coast season ending spring tournament the Boston Invitational. DoG started with an easy victory over #4 Machine, followed by a rainy bye, and then a meeting with their regional rival GOAT. Despite the score, the game was (closer/less close?) than the score indicated. A 3rd game against last seed LCN held to form as DoG walked to a 13-7 victory. In the final showcase game against Chain Lightning, DoG's offense got on track. Despite a slew of turnovers, they were only broken once the entire game. The defense was unfortunately unable to hold up their end of the bargain despite a number of early opportunities with the disc.

Meanwhile, over in the other pool, after some early jitters (and a 13-3 pounding at the hands of Potomac), Ring of Fire got back on track with victories over BAT and the minor upset of #1 pool seed Pike. This was good enough to get them the 3rd seed, an early morning crossover game with Philly from the Open division, and then a quarterfinal game with DoG. After a tougher than expected 13-9 victory over Philly, Ring took it to a clearly overmatched and tired DoG, whose offense was a pale shadow of the previous day, running on fumes and wondering what was happening.

After being bumped to the losers bracket, DoG was able to get back a little of its pride against another regional rival, Twisted Metal, before punting in the 5-6 game against LCN as LCN wanted to get going on the drive home (and had already lost to DoG).

In the winners bracket, only 3 points overall separated the 3 semis and final games, with Chain continuing it's hot streak with a semis victory Potomac 11-10 and Ring beating Pike in a squeaker 13-12. Chain seems like the real deal, with AJ showing the way both on and off the field, bringing Chain back to respectability (or maybe to real respectability for the first time). Unfortunately, Chain couldn't rally to win in the finals, losing by a point to Ring, 15-14. And Ring showed real character after starting the tournament 0-2 to rise out of the pre-quarters and win their final 6 games. Looks like Sockeye set a good example to follow in last years champies with their pre-quarters path.

Interesting scores: Although Twisted Metal ended with only 2 victories, they had some very close games, and it is interesting how they do in certain matchups, beating Ring and giving Pike a VERY tough game. As for GOAT, which team showed up and which one will be at Regionals? How will DoG do this weekend in Santa Cruz with almost their entire squad against the 'Big Iron'? Will this make a difference? And just imagine what I could have written if I had actually been at the tournament?