Boston Invite Recap

So, apparently we were put into the Pool of Death. Our 1st seed, Dark or Light, placed 8th overall, our 2 and 3 seed, Gino's and Pheonix, faced off in the finals. I never really felt like we were being outplayed or we were far off from their athleticism or skill level. But, we lost anyway due to many errors on our part.

The 0-4 day 1 start can be put on a few things.  Lack of defensive intensity, especially on the marks (Getting broken around, not sealing), and having nearly negative flow on offense. We had plenty of unforced turns and weren't able to generate many turns. All of these things started getting much better throughout the day, and by day 2 we started really clicking.

It really showed on day 2 (at least for the second and third games) that everything and everyone was starting to come together. Marks were holding the force, forcing up poor decisions with great down-field defense and generating turns.There were finally continuation cuts coming when the cutters would get the disc. Overall just great play from everyone.

It was great to be counted on when we needed to score some points. All the pushing and working has paid off at least a little bit (and the fact that we lost Emory-7x, Tom Brown-7x, Kat-PoNY, JG-PoNY). That being said, the new guys really stepped it up.

Dave "Vanilla" Hall came up with at least a dozen lay out D's, most of which were catch D's.

Charlie, Justin, and Steve all played solid offense.

Jimmy set the bar high for catching the pull on day 1 by catching some enormous super bladey pull, forced the rest of us to man up and actually catch them (although he did drop 2 pulls on the weekend).

Dylan looks like a monster, Bland looks like he needs to get back in shape.

Ben's IO flick hucks were spot on, the rest were 50/50.

No one showed a lot of weakness, solid athletic ability all around. Good start for the season.

For me on the weekend: solid man defense, obviously lots of room for improvement but it was a good starting place. Only got beat up-line once, it was for a goal from 30 yards out though. Got beat deep a few times, most of which were contested at least. I really need to be ready to turn and go after preventing the under.

Offense-wise, I can't huck at all right now; they are all inconsistent and bladey. Most were turnovers, consisting of almost all of my turns on the weekend aside from one throw into the ground late day 2. I'm having difficulty getting open on handler defenders that apply a lot of body to me, normally I am able to rely on being quicker then my defender, but not when I can't move. Unders and breaks all look good, putting the disc to the safe side hand of the offense nearly every throw.

Running felt fine, I was able to grit out the long points, even when my defender was out of gas I was able to keep going. This helped a lot to finish out games on day 2.

Very exciting to see what we can do, like scoring 4 straight while being down 14-12 to win the game 16-14.

This is only a starting point for the season. No where to go but up.

Can't stop. Won't stop.