A wet and cloudy morning met Madcow as the team rolled into the Detroit
Polo club on Saturday to defend last year's tournament championship.
The herd was a bit thinned for this weekend's quest due to a number of
weddings and a few lingering injuries, but with a couple of subs for
each line and the highly anticipated return of
Sitler from his
Appalachian excursion, Cow was confident they could have another
successful outing in the state up north.
With the threat of
showers and thunderstorms waning early in the morning, the weather was
looking better than expected and Madcow took the field to take down the
first challengers, Midnight Meat Train. There were a few minor hiccups
and we weren't quite up to speed yet, but Cow rolled through the first
game without much ado, winning 13-4. The second game of the day
featured the biggest opponent of the tournament in Chicago's Haymaker,
a team that Madcow had already played and defeated three times this
season. Confidence was high from the previous wins, but the players
knew they would have to take a big step up from the performance of the
previous round. Despite a great looking start from the D-line making
some big plays in the first point (two of which were brought on
contested foul calls), Cow couldn't seem to muster the fire, the focus,
or the legs needed to keep the Chicago team at bay. Some miscues on
offense and a sloppy D-line offense weren't enough to get the job done,
and Haymaker took advantage of the lackluster performance, winning
10-12 in the cap.
Clearly disappointed with this loss but
knowing the day was far from over, Cow regrouped and rolled through the
next game against Ann Arbor's Spoiler to win 13-5. Next was another
Chicago team, Beachfront Property, and Madcow came out firing and took
half 7-1. The players got a bit complacent and the D line offense
again sputtered, resorting in a second half of trading points. Clearly
not how the players had hoped for the second half to go, but a win was
still secured at 13-8. The last game of the day was against the tricky
old-timers of Real Huck, but the young legs of Madcow proved a bit too
much for their big bag of crazy throws and the herd rolled through for
a win at 13-3.
With the first day of play under their belts and
a first round bye secured, Cow was able to relax for a bit and enjoy
the burritos (pretty tasty, not bad at $5) and beer (which we pretended
wasn't from the Ann Arbor Brewing Co). The herd filled their thirst
and stomachs as they tried to forget the sub-par play of the day and
think instead on the improvements necessary for tomorrows run at the
championship. Some camped, and some stayed at
Hump's house in Lansing
to relax and rest up. A notable victory of the night was made (loudly)
by
Willis in Ticket to Ride, as he was able to... have the most trains.
Or something.
After a good night of rest, Madcow returned to the
fields. Some issues with a number of players arriving late for the
warm-ups didn't seem to be the start Madcow was hoping for, and
unfortunately this carried into the first game of the day. Playing
against Michigan State's team, Tuxedo, the herd came out slow and
sloppy. No one seemed to be running at full speed or fully focused for
this quarterfinal game and it certainly showed. Bad decisions, poor
hucks, silly drops, and uninspired defensive play plagued the entire
game for Madcow (with an exception for a sick layout bid to save a
score in the endzone by Sitler - whose hand was then cleated, forcing
him to play lefty for the last two games).
Brent Reeb has since
expressed fear that our drinking water was contaminated with
SlowCow,
an anti-energy drink, which the play on the field seemed to support.
The young MSU players were running hard and not giving up, and the herd
were having trouble elevating their game. Despite being down at half,
Madcow was able to summon the will to win and pull out an ugly win at
14-13. Cow was able to regroup and bring up the tempo and intensity a
bit to play the young Michigan team Spoiler for the second time this
weekend, and put away the game with little danger at 15-6.
Reaching
yet another tournament final, Cow faced off against the now very
familiar opponent in Haymaker. Nostrils flaring from the loss suffered
yesterday, the Cow came out running much better than it had
previously. The first half was a bit messy with both Madcow and
Haymaker coming up with a number of breaks and trading the lead. Cow
was able to take it to half at 8-7. The second half featured less
breaks, but still proved to be exciting with a number of spectacular
plays including a layout grab by
Axis past his defender to secure the
disc inches from the ground. Both teams were flying around the field,
trying to will their team to the win, and the Madcow D was able to dig
in and put the game away with a break at 14-13, successfully defending
last years win. Congrats go out to
BMW for winning the MAD jersey,
earning it by being a nightmare to any cutter he faced this weekend and
coming up with some crucial D's. The COW jersey was not awarded this
weekend, with
Biggs instead issuing a challenge to the players of the
O-line to work harder and really step it up at the next tournament for
a chance to wear it.
Probably not the prettiest weekend for the team, but Madcow was able to
muster the fight to stay in and finally emerge on top. The victory was
a good cap to the first half of our season which was certainly
successful. Motown also showed that the herd has a lot of work to do
in order to be playing at the level we expect of ourselves come
regionals. It's time to pound the track, up the plyos, and bring the
desire to each and every practice. Moo, bitches. See you at
Chesapeake.
