La Dolce Vita

So I’m going to get through the bad news right off the bat: We lost. It was pretty disappointing, but I can honestly say that we left everything on the field and played our hearts out. The O-line played fantastically. They attacked the disc, they made huge throws, and amazing catches. This was definitely their game, and it was a beautiful thing to watch.

The D-line started the game off, but the Italians were able to break through our zone. We’ve been playing a very basic 3-3-1, but always pushing to one side and trying to trap on the side line. The cup was composed of Steve (pushing or trying to stop the dump), Chris or Brent playing banana, and Ankur or Tavesh playing upline. Jit usually played hammer stopper with James on one of the wings. The other wing was taken by whoever in the cup needed a break. Mike covered us all and played deep.

The O-line came out and immediately showed us how it was done. They moved the disc down the field with sharp, short, precise passing to about half way and then Pinky broke free and Andre put up a big pass. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a turn. But Pinky pulled off a twisting, turning layout leaping into the endzone to match the Italians.

The D-line went back out for a fairly monumental point that involved about three turns. It would have been much shorter if Ankur was able to grab the disk as he was flying down the field for a Callahan. He was so damn close. Unfortunately though, we just could not find the endzone. And I have all the grass burns to prove how hard we tried. Unfortunately, after this, the Italians wet on a little bit of a run before Coach Johnny called a timeout with RSA down 5-1. This gave the O-line time to regroup and focus on the job that you had to do. With a quick connection from Pete to Andre, South Africa was back on the board!

There was no luck on the next point for the D-line as Italy found their way to the endzone again, but the O-line came right back with Pete connecting with Andre again (Get use to it, it will be a common theme--Andre was putting up some great passes and pulling down throws all over the place. Pete showed us all why he was a great player with huge throws from anywhere on the field). Pete stayed on for a D-line point. We managed to get the first turn when Italy threw it away but we ended up turning it over in the endzone. We set the zone again and Pete came up with a big D and a quick push pass leading to the first D-line score and pulling us back a little bit closer. Italy called a timeout, regrouped, and then took half at 9-5.

The O-line started the second half, but wasn’t able to initially find the endzone. A timeout by Coach Johnny allowed everyone to focus on playing great, fun, sexy ultimate. The O-line took the coaches words to heart and played an amazing point. Finn and Andre were cutting like mad in the middle, catching passes underneath constantly. Michael Weston and Pinky made great catches with Italians climbing on their backs. Pete and Ryan and Martin were in complete control in the back. The O-line just eased the disc up the field and Pete snuck it in the endzone with a break force to Pinky.

The D-line definitely came back out the next point to play. Italy was able to move it up, but eventually threw it away. We were definitely ready to take advantage of it and we emulated the O-line with some super smooth Ultimate and move it up the field. Plenty of open cuts and straight passes led to a quick score by Mike H from Jit. We stayed on for another point, but we weren’t able to turn the Italians back. The Italians then went on another run to find us down 12-7. But we weren’t finished yet!

The O-line rediscovered their magic and Andre found Finn on a great scoring play just pass a diving Italian player. Johnny kept the O-line on for another one and they were able to get a turn with some great D by Andre. They moved the disc slowly down the field and then stalled out near the endzone. And then the play of the game happened.

Martin Whiting managed to reach into his bag of trips and sneak away from his defender into the back of the endzone. He is a wily, old player and he definitely fooled his younger defender by slipping away and settling into the far back corner. Pete Rive through up a huge, bending blade just beyond the reach of Martin’s defender and Martin made the catch look easy like a Sunday morning. Martin is actually our new deep receiver.

The D-line was so fired up by Martin’s catch that we ran down there and threw on a super hot cup. Jit followed a crasher into the cup and picked the disk out of the air. A super short pass led to another SA score and brought us to 12-10 and scared the Italians enough to call another time out.

Italy roared back and scored the next two points, which was followed by another great O point. We traded points again with another hot O-line point and then came up to game point and our backs against the wall. The D-line was able to squeeze in one more point with Ankur and Jit starting to click. Overheard from the field from Ankur, “Oh, now I know how you are going to cut.” It only took five days.

But Italy was able to score the final point and take the game. They definitely deserved the game, and it was a hard, physical game. There were a lot of foul calls on both side, but many of them were non-contested. The circle at the end was great; and although we were definitely disappointed with the loss, we were very happy with how we played.