Westerns: Open Official UPA Write-up

The UPA has released their official write-ups from the Western Championships. They are well written (in both the open and girls divisions). As I'm sure there are thoughts and feelings post-westerns, let each of these posts (one for the open and one for the ladies) serve as the place you can offer your feedback on the experience whether you were there or not...

UPA SCORE REPORTER

Here is the official write-up of the 2008 Westerns Open Division according to Aaron Schieber



DAY ONE

The teams from the Northwest must have been wondering why they needed to travel halfway across the country to play in weather that felt like home. With temperatures in the 50’s and a damp wind blowing, the 6 teams out of Washington and Oregon weren’t ready for some of Westerns’ surprises. Something besides rain was different today. 2007 champion The Northwest School graduated a large group of its core and teams believe the Championship is possibly up for the taking.

ROUND 1

The first game of the day for the overall 2 seed Seattle Academy was against 7 seed Lakewood. Seattle, behind the great play of #3 Peter Bender and #9 Simon Montague and a supporting cast sporting fantastic haircuts, showed why they were seeded so high by mowing down the outmatched Lakewood (15-4).

The Cretin-Durham vs. Monroe matchup looked to be going the same way with Monroe jumping to an early 6-1 lead. But a scrappy Cretin-Durham team decided that they didn’t want to hand the game to Monroe. Behind some great play by #17 Peter Tschida, Cretin-Durham mounted a comeback that brought them to half down 8-4. They continued to close the gap, but the huge grabs by Monroe’s #18 kept them at bay with Monroe pulling off the upset and their first Westerns victory (15-12).

Perhaps the game of the round was The Northwest School facing off an under-ranked Eden Prairie team. After a close first half left Eden Prairie down 8-6, the big game experience of The Northwest School came through in the second half as they held off Eden Prairie and pulled away to a 10-6 lead. Eden Prairie wasn’t out of gas and clawed their way back into the game, falling just short in a (9-10) loss. In pool D, the local KC Rockhurst team lined up across from a very impressive Cathedral team and was completely leveled. Cathedral never looked back as they marched to an 11-1 victory.

ROUND 2

The next round opened with Alameda facing off against Minneapolis South. It was hard to say whether it was the wind or lingering morning jitters but both teams started the game with numerous drops. After falling behind to the lower seeded South 3-1, Alameda decided to put the game in the hands of their go-to guys. Nick Rafter (#25), Pierre Retrayt (#28) and Tyler Boyd-Meredith put together great catches, cuts and throws to pull even at 5’s and eventually earn the win (11-9).

On the adjacent field, Rockhurst was taking on defending champion The Northwest School in a rematch of the 2007 quarterfinals and hoping for a better result. The game was hard fought and the teams essentially traded points to 8-8. Rockhurst was relying heavily on big grabs by Junior deep receiver Paul Jensen (#4) while Northwest didn’t seem to have a player on the field who didn’t contribute. But after the tie at 8’s Rockhurst lost their steam and Northwest knocked out 3 in a row for the (11-8) win.

Nathan Hale and Hopkins were both ready to play after their first round byes and equally came out firing. Hopkins proved way too deep for Nathan Hale and laid an 8-1 whooping on them in the first half. The second half was more of the same with Hopkins only giving up a couple more points and closing Nathan Hale out (15-6).

On the adjacent field, Cathedral and Eden Prairie played an almost identical game as the Hopkins v Nathan Hale game. Cathedral made short work of Eden Prairie behind the great play of #5 Eric Johnson, winning the game (15-4).

ROUND 3

With threats of heavy rain, the round began with all teams having at least one game under their belts. Unfortunately rest and re-focus during their bye didn’t spell success for Lakewood. Cretin-Durham once again jumped on the shoulders of #17 Senior Tschida and avenged their first round defeat to Monroe by handing Lakewood a (15-5) loss.

Minneapolis South’s bye proved no less fruitful as they drew a tough 3rd round draw against 1 seed Lakeside. Multiple players for Lakeside including #96 Julian Childs-Walker and #3 Justin Norden helped to lead Lakeside to a waxing (15-3) of the Squall.

Cathedral continued their trend of mopping the floor with their opponents, this time behind the stat page-filling play of bandana-wearing #5 Matt Vik and #3 Pat Nickelson. Cathedral continued to impress and make their case to be the next Westerns Champion by laying waste to Haus (15-4) and ending their Saturday with only 9 points scored on them.

After watching a number of blowouts, it was time to see two teams duke it out. Nathan Hale and South Eugene were ready to oblige with a great first half that saw #44 Jake Coate of Nathan Hale and #1 Jacob Jannin of South Eugene trying to out-do each other as best player on the field. In this game, Jannin’s desire and ability to go deep at any time, from anywhere on the field, proved the more potent skill as he led his Raiders to the (12-9) win.

The freestyle offense of Monroe matched up against the gritty defense of Seattle Academy. Monroe’s stackless offense is a sight to behold when it is flowing but when it falls apart their players end up needing to make outstanding plays where normal catches and throws would be rudimentary. Seattle Academy was able to force Monroe into this scenario and their offense sputtered allowing Seattle Academy to win (13-7).

ROUND 4

The first match-up of round 4 pitted a Lakewood team, down from their lack of success in earlier rounds against a riled up Monroe squad, fired up from their recent loss. The connections were back on for Monroe as #6 Manny Jimenez and #13 moved the disc at will, point after point. This combined with the huge play of #18, allowed Monroe to cruise to a (15-2) victory.

As the day progressed, teams began to hit their stride and play the Ultimate we all knew they could, evident in the Lakeside v Alameda game. It is rare to see a game where the first 4 points of a game are unbelievably hard fought. Layout D’s and second-effort catches abounded for both teams as Lakeside scratched out an early 3-1 lead. The score extended with Lakeside up 6-4 and both teams seemed to have settled in to a high level of play. Behind a multitude of amazing layouts by Alameda’s #81 Kumi Hodge, Dark Meat tried to keep pace but Lakeside’s roster was too deep, pulling away in the second half and securing the (13-9) win.

Rockhurst was primed for their first win but Eden Prairie thought otherwise. Rockhurst fell behind early but didn’t let it get in their heads. With #2 Everett Arruda and #11 Vinnie Ciaramitaro unloading huck after huck, Rockhurst made a run and pulled within one at half. But the hucks wouldn’t fall in the second half and to Eden Prairie’s delight, Synergy didn’t make the proper adjustments, leaving the door open for a (11-8) Eden Prairie victory.

Perhaps the game of the day and certainly the game that indicates how far high school Ultimate has come, took place in this round as South Eugene and Hopkins faced off in a heavyweight bout with a Pre-Quarters bye on the line. One observer on the sideline referred to this game as “Huck City” – both teams were fearless with their throws and completely trusting their receivers to haul in every put. The teams traded points to a 9-8 South Eugene lead at half. The second half was more of the same until at 13-12 Hopkins made a crucial mistake and left a streaking South Eugene player completely unguarded for an easy South Eugene score and 14-12 lead. Hopkins proved resilient and continued to fight, getting the next point and keeping the game within reach at 14-13. The soft cap horn had blown, so the battle was to 16 and South Eugene would receive. A fearless Jacob Jannin would not be denied and unloaded a bomb to the endzone for a quick score and the 15-13 lead. After a Hopkins turn, a savvy #10 Dylan Freechild for South Eugene burns a timeout to guarantee the easy score near the endzone. But out of the timout Hopkins #50 decides he’s not quite ready to be done playing and makes an amazing layout D to keep HURt’s hopes alive. Unfortunately his teammate who picked up the disc hastily proceeded to huck it, and turn it over. South Eugene wouldn’t be denied a second time and on an incredible layout catch Freechild clinched the victory and the pre-quarters bye for South Eugene (16-13).

The round closed with another nail biter. In a game of runs, Cretin-Durham took half against Seattle Academy 8-5. Seattle Academy came out after half on fire and pulled ahead 10-8 with a 5 point run. After soft and hard caps are blown, Cretin-Durham puts together the final string and grabs the victory (11-10).

CROSSOVERS

The crossover round saw The Northwest School in unfamiliar territory. Facing elimination from the Championship Bracket on Saturday of Westerns, and to their misfortune of standing on the other line was the upstart Monroe Cobras who had been playing all day with fire and a chip on their shoulders. Monroe would not be denied in the first 7 points of the game and Northwest had no answer as Monroe commanded a 6-1 lead early. But a short rotation and only 3 subs all day started to take their toll on Monroe as Northwest dug into their stores of championship experience and began to hack away at the lead. One Northwest player on the sideline was prophetic when he yelled “Come on Northwest. We’re still in this!” Point by point Northwest whittled away at the lead closing the gap before half to 7-5. Fortunately for Monroe they had built their lead early and were able to stave off the Northwest onslaught and under the soft cap pull out the victory (10-8).

Would Hopkins would be able to rebound from the heart wrenching loss in their last round to South Eugene and get their head into their next match-up against Minneapolis South? Luckily one of their strongest team traits is positive energy and they barely blinked as they switched their focus to the next opponent. Minneapolis never recovered from an early case of the drops that gave Hopkins an 8-3 half time lead. Like great teams will do, Hopkins continued to pull away in the second half and handily won the game (15-7).

Eden Prairie and Cretin-Durham faced off and played pretty evenly to 5-5. After a C-D turn, their coach made the call for them to set up in a zone defense near Eden Prairie’s upwind endzone. It proved a genius move as Cretin-Durham’s #10 Joe Ryan was able to get a Callahan score which gave C-D the lead and a huge energy boost. Cretin-Durham took the opportunity and didn’t let off the gas getting one more break and securing their spot in quarter finals with the (10-8) win.

The final pre-quarters game saw a tired Alameda team running against what looked like a much fresher Nathan Hale squad. Alameda’s #81 Kumi Hodge again kept his team in the game with layout after layout which was all but matched by the very strong defense of Nathan Hale’s #44 Jake Coate. Nathan Hale pulled ahead 8-4 at half and though they fought hard in the second half Alameda didn’t have the reserves to get back in it. The game was called due to lightning with Nathan Hale ahead (10-7) final score.


DAY TWO

With Saturday’s pool play out of the way and the first section of the elimination bracket over, it was time for the final 8 teams to get down to the business of deciding who would take home the trophy this year. The remaining teams were South Eugene, Monroe, Cathedral, Hopkins, Lakeside, Cretin-Durham, Seattle Academy and Nathan Hale. The noticeable absence of The Northwest School meant it could be anybody’s day. Late rain on Saturday softened up the fields even more, and if teams had struggled in the previous days light winds they were in for trouble today with winds gusting up to 20 mph.

QUARTERFINALS

With Northwest missing from title contention, #1 Lakeside looked poised to make a run for the championship. But first, they would have to take on a strong Cretin-Durham team. Early on in the game it became apparent that Lakeside players were working with a superior skill set. Despite Cretin-Durham’s strategy of “punt and zone”, Lakeside time and time again worked it both directions in the wind for scores. Lakeside pulled ahead 5-0 before Cretin-Durham would even find a receiver in the end zone. Lakeside ran a zone that was very effective and continually got the turns they needed. They continued to score points on Cretin-Durham and pulled ahead 9-4. Cretin-Durham made a run late in the game but it was too little too late as Lakeside sent them home under the soft-cap (10-7).

If anybody still had doubts about Monroe’s ability after their performance on Saturday they were in for more surprises on Sunday. South Eugene who had played fantastic on Saturday had the misfortune of drawing the Cobras for their quarterfinal game. From the outset, the South Eugene players seemed to be having difficulty with keeping their footing and wind. Their huck game, led by #1 Jacob Jannin, faltered in the wind and they couldn’t adjust to the underneath cuts. Monroe’s short game mentality adapted much better to the wind and against man or zone defense they were able to move the disc into the wind very efficiently and take an amazing 6-1 lead. #13 Hugo Rojas was spectacular for the Cobras, not only was he one of the two offensive player who touched the disc every 2-3 throws, he also repeatedly marked up on defense against South Eugene’s best players. South Eugene made a short run late in the first half to close the lead to 8-4 but their time was running out. In the second half South Eugene couldn’t put together the plays they needed to catch up with Monroe. Jannin never was able to fully get into a rhythm and Monroe just kept punching in scores to finally close out the game (9-6).

On the far field an all too common match up was taking place, Nathan Hale v Seattle Academy. Like the other teams in this round, both Hale and SAAS had a rough time adjusting to the strong winds and sloppy conditions. Throughout the game both teams found player after player slipping and sliding only able to score downwind. Seattle was the only team able to get a break in the first half and it would prove to be all they needed. With the cap on coming out of half, Seattle got the final score they needed and dashed Nathan Hale’s hopes with a 9-6 win. It was refreshing to see two rivals, in a game that easily could have been contentious, play with such spirit.

Perhaps the game of the day, and what could have easily been the finals game, took place in the Quarters between cross town rivals Cathedral and Hopkins. The local fans were in for a treat as the struggle for dominance in the Minneapolis High School arena was played out in Independence. These two teams had played no less than a week prior to Sunday’s game with Hopkins pulling off a tight victory and Cathedral was ready for a rematch. Though the winds were as strong on their field as any, Hopkins opted to play man defense versus Cathedral’s strategy of running a cup. Initially this worked in HURt’s favor as they were able to pull ahead 3-1. But Cathedral’s energy was high and they would not let an early deficit bring them down. Behind the wind cutting puts of #5 Eric Johnson, Cathedral clawed their way back into the game 3-4. The next point was a marathon, with turn after turn neither team seemed like they would be able to punch it in, but Cathedral was able to out-endure it and finally grabbed an upwind score to tie the game. Surprisingly, the next 6 points were all scored upwind leaving the game knotted at 7-7 before Cathedral got a stop and were able to score and take half 8-7. Cathedral received coming out of the half and were able to squeak a score past a bidding HURt player for a 9-7 lead. Any other team in this round would have been devastated by a 2 point deficit this late in the game but Hopkins is not any other team. They are made of steel and brick on the inside and in games like this, that comes in very handy as they stood up and took two points right back from Cathedral to tie the game at 9’s in a game capped at 11. But in great games, great players step up and once again Senior Eric Johnson, with his jaunty black bandanna, decided that a play needed to be made. His, irreverent of the wind, hammer on the next point landed perfectly in his receiver’s hands giving Cathedral the lead and put a huge gust of wind in their sails. All it took was one turnover on the next point and Cathedral took advantage scoring yet another up-winder to secure their spot in the semi finals and their victory over their bitter rival.

SEMIFINALS

In the fist semifinal game, a senior-deep Cathedral would be pitted against perennial powerhouse Lakeside. Early on it seemed like the game would be a nail biter with the teams trading points. Both were playing zone and again Cathedral’s Johnson, unaffected by the wind, seemed to be able to put the disc wherever he wanted on the field. At 3-3 #1 Andy May of Cathedral unfortunately made a critical error and turned the disc over near the upwind end zone and Lakeside took advantage. Lakeside took the momentum from there and behind the great defense of #12 was able to pull away to an 8-4 halftime lead. Cathedral couldn’t recover and Lakeside did what great teams do and never let up the pressure. More layout Ds by #12 and solid offensive performances by standout #96 Julian Childs-Walker and #3 Justin Norden helped Lakeside shut out Cathedral in the second half and grab their spot in the finals game with authority (15-4).

In the other semifinal, Monroe drew a rematch against their pool play opponent Seattle Academy who had handed the Cobras their only loss in Saturday play. Monroe came out chomping at the bit, ready to prove that the 13-7 loss they had taken was a fluke, and that they were as good a team as any at Westerns. They proved it by marching to a 6-1 lead over SAAS and surprising one more team with their unorthodox offense. Content to, again and again, take the short under throws and never panicking regardless of pressure, Monroe made short work of the Seattle defense. With their offense synching so well, Monroe’s defense needed only to patiently wait for Seattle to turn over the disc and then could have complete confidence that another score was coming. Seattle’s defense had absolutely no answer for this methodical attack by Monroe and with their offense struggling to score frustration quickly set in. After scoring two goals in the first half, Seattle was only able to get one more in the second half before Monroe slammed the door on their Westerns hopes at 15-3.

FINALS

Monroe’s coach Ken Brown said on Saturday that he believed his team had been under-seeded coming into the tournament, but he may have been the only one to have picked his team to make it into the finals. Monroe had slain giant after giant on their journey and now perhaps they had their biggest task of the tournament, attempting to knock off the #1 seeded and heavy-favorite Lakeside. It was easy to see the differences in the two teams, Monroe had 3 subs, Lakeside had 12. But low numbers had yet to cramp the Cobras style and their game plan would be the same as before, make the short throws and take advantage when the other team made mistakes. Lakeside’s early strategy was to play zone to disrupt the short movement of Monroe’s handlers and to send receivers deep to take advantage of Monroe’s fuel tanks that had to be nearing empty. This strategy worked well, the wind losing some of its steam and a seemingly endless number of players who were able to put the disc deep allowed Lakeside to run up a 5-2 lead on Monroe and make them play from behind, a position they hadn’t been in much this weekend. Having so few subs turned out to be Monroe’s downfall, with the tiring of bodies the Cobras started to make mental errors, catches that had been easy in earlier games became drops and deep cutters off turns weren’t picked up fast enough leading to easy Lakeside scores. This exhausted Monroe team was ripe picking for Lakeside’s #22 Sam Keller as he kept the offense moving with his crisp throws and threw a monkey wrench into Monroe’s offense with his smart, explosive defense. In the end, Lakeside would not be denied and after winning the first half 8-3 closed the book on Monroe’s incredible Westerns run by winning the game 15-4 and taking home their first Westerns Championship.