Open Scores: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4937
Girls Scores: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4938
Some of the pool play story from Henry Thorne... (emphasis mine, some parts were removed - [...] - click on the link for the full rundown)
[...]
[first round]
Meanwhile huge upset develops across the field with Paideia actually losing to the 3rd seed in the pool. Now realize, Paideia is one of the best programs in Juniors Ultimate, 15 years old, a religion at the school. So they don't lose at their home tournament ever practically, but, sure enough, Seattle takes it to them 12-8 and that's the ball game. What this means is, North Hills is in a ridiculously stacked pool with perhaps the best two teams in it. And them. And guess what, they get to face Seattle right now...
Seattle gets the pull, 11 passes later, none threatened, goal, 1 zip, NH down for the first time. Hills receives, a few passes later ben jacks one, seatlle d, bummer. Luckily somehow Nh gets a D and jackola again, this time successful. That pumps em up some and they come out with defensive pressure three times and jack in 3 more "how do they frickin' throw so well" scores for 4-1 and they're starting to realize they're the real deal. They go up 10-3, 12-4. We're talking' Max and Pat again. They take the game 15-9 but it was really a good bit more than that.
Paideia now has to beat NH by 6 to make the championship bracket. Parents line the field, great parents wonderful community. And let me say that paideia has two twin brothers that shouldn't ever lose an ultimate game. They are huge. By soft hands and can throw anything. And everyone on the team has ridiculous fundamentals. Never a drop, never a bad throw, never even a poor decision. Olio gets the big assignment, covers whichever brother is on and manages to make them pay dearly for every touch. By the end of the game they're both cramping and struggling. They took something out of jeff too though with 4 bombs away and two drops but NH is only down by one at the half.
The parents got a hell of a show as much of the action happened in the endzone right in front of them. Two blade goals. A Lippert drag across the back line at full speed. C Hite with two blocks, one almst a callahan. And Alex with his usual bevy of precision strikes. It was quite a show and NH was down almost the entire way including 12-10 the then 15-14 when the soft cap went on. But they could still play and Paideia was running on empty. C Hite gets another key block, and man to man NH keeps winning their matchup taking three in a row finishing with a crispy 60 yarder from Alex to Ben.
And photos from Michael Smith - Saturday Highlights
I'm sure Sunday shots and the complete works will be up shortly, Michael is an amazing photographer, there are some sweet shots there.
So conclusions from the results I've seen and the accounts I've heard thus far from Paideia -
-Paideia hosted a very exciting tournament.
-Everyone loves "upsets"
-Paideia, Seattle Academy, and Columbia played very well
-Easterns is going to be a hell of a show.
-It would appear that perhaps SA will be able to give Northwest a run for their money in the west?
-Westerns is going to be a hell of a show
-A lot of college programs are going to get some good players next year
But the most important conclusion... North Hills is the truth.
(Will update with finals score as it becomes available, post any comments or further observations - would love to hear more of the specifics)
3 comments:
Seattle Academy might beat Northwest in the west, but SA was really players from 3 different schools...more like a seattle all star team. i heard something like 7 of the players were invited to worlds tryouts
haha, no offense McCabe, but you aren't really in touch with the west coast.
nws is no longer a powerhouse. they graduated 13 seniors last year. they are a program, and have some great players, but aren't dominant. saas is good - they have jimmy hooper, michael revelas, and some other role players, but this team wasn't saas. they picked up several ringers including matt rehder (one of the best deeps in the nation), julian childs-walker (worlds, goes to lakeside), casey macphee (northwest), and maybe one or two others.
super tight that they won. westerns will be contested.
"haha, no offense McCabe, but you aren't really in touch with the west coast."
- this is very very true, i live in pittsburgh, and when im not in pittsburgh, im in philadelphia.
all i know of the west coast is what i see from scores and what people tell me :)
what i do know about westerns is this....
2004 (nationals) - Northwest 2nd to Amherst
2005 champion - Northwest
2006 champion - Northwest
2007 champion - Northwest
So, in my mind at least, until someone beats Northwest at westerns, they will be the best team in the west.
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