About a week later, sitting at home eating a pint of Rum Raisin
Haagen-
Dazs ice cream, I finally think I should write about
regionals. The most important tournament of the year was finally upon us. The track workouts,
plyos, drills, and tournaments had prepared us for this day. Seeded 5
th overall, we faced the University of Ohio in the first game of bracket play. The defense stepped onto the field ready to set the tone for the game. I had the honor of the first pull and did not disappoint. As the D line sprinted down the field, you could feel the sense of urgency. Hard handler D shut down Ohio and caused them to throw up an errant pass which landed out of bounds. Alex
Edinger called for an end zone, I
Hotttt. I got the disc, dumped to
Hatham Shawqi, then beat his man
upline, seeing this,
Edinger cut
breakside. I throws a invert forehand break for the first break of the tournament. Unable to break Ohio's O again,
MSU's O line stepped onto the field ready to prove that they could score easier than
Heff on a Thursday night. However, this game would be highlighted by the O line's inability to work the disc into the end zone. Broken 5 times in a row, the D was finally given the chance to get back on the field and provide the match the Couch needed to get going again. I gave the disc a ride again and the head galloped down ready to munch on Ohio. Matt
Dagher-
Margosian, who proved to be the best handler defender on the team, was
possesed. This was his point. Marking up on their stud handler, Dagger gave him the business then called his mom to say thank you. Hand block city. Hype as shit, there is no way the D line is going to give this back unless Pat
O'Callahan tries to squirt ink at it. The handlers go
UpLine like there is free beer in the back of the end zone and I find myself in an all too familiar spot. Aaron
Zigler is being forced sideline and I see the mismatch, being more accessorized and prettier than his opponent, I soon find myself in the end zone drop kicking the disc like it was a bag of kittens out of an airplane. 3-6. The O line muffs the disc and somehow we find ourselves down 7-3 against Ohio. Game time. Justin
Timberlake, I mean Matthew
Mcconaughey, wait no, David
Vuckovich, had warned me earlier not to look past Ohio. Good looking and intelligent, watch out, especially if his
MLU career falls through. Needless to say, he was right. We were in a dogfight and needed to make plays. Somehow, Phil
Sommer was able to come up big time after time and put us in position to score. The miracle 9 was complete. Burning Couch 13-9.
Finally, a shot at Leadbelly, who was looking rather professional in their black jerseys, quite unexpected ( I was hoping to see Beemer's "World's Best Cheddar" tee, but it was not in the cards). Coming out in the Special Sauce, we were looking for a big stop to get this game started with a break. OSU had too many handlers who were hitting the spots. Man called. Goal scored. 1-0 Lead. O line steps onto the field ready to keep the squad in the game. Leadbelly must have seen that we had been struggling with zone and immediately threw one on us. This is the first time I have ever seen a zone from Ohio State who is known for their man defense and not having jerseys. Were we really playing Ohio State? After a few turns on both ends, Leadbelly got the break. 3 more breaks followed and suddenly we found ourselves in a hole again. OSU was keeping a tight rotation in as Timmy, Jimmy, Beemer, and T Lake were running the show. The Couch was able to battle back to make it 10-7 at one point but Ohio State refused to let us back into the game. Final score 15-10, Leadbelly.
Losing at regionals sucks. Everyone goes into the weekend with dreams of making it to nationals. Surprising people and going on that Cinderella run is everyones hope. Time to move on, Oberlin was waiting for us.
We had played Oberlin twice this season already and beaten then rather easily 13-4 each time, we expected this to be an easy game. It was Regionals though and this was a different Oberlin team ready to run. We found ourselves in a dogfight just letting them hang out, but took half 8-6. During the second half, we finally came out with some intensity and were able to put them away 14-9.
Miami Ohio stood in the way of us and Sunday. The only time we had played them had been in the fall as a split squad at Best of the Midwest. Taking second place in the East Plains, we knew we could not take this team lightly. The game started with MSU on O. The Couch was really fired up for this game as most of us remembered how we already had been eliminated. This game went back and forth until MSU went up 12-9. The game seemed to be in hand until Miami somehow gained momentum back and won 14-13 on universe.
