Madcow kicks off the 2008 Club Series with the annual UPA East Plains Sectional Championships where the best and brightest from Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia battle it out for a bid to the next level, Regionals.
(first round bye) Most Columbus players who have played at the college and club level should be used to this by now. Seeded first overall and with a first round bye, most of the Madcows stayed in Columbus Friday night and traveled early Saturday morning to revered Versailles, OH, home of chickified tournament, Poultry Days. The first three matchups on Saturday seemed quick and painless with lines playing two points in a row, giving everyone a chance to do work on the defensive end.
Game 1: DiscLexia (Lexington, KY). Madcow opens up the tournament with the eventual second place finisher in their pool, who had just come off of their first 2008 sectional win against the University of Miami Boogiemen. Madcow comes out quickly in the first half with chilly scores and the defense capitalizing easily on turnovers. Looking a bit dyslexic in the second half, Madcow D misreads a couple swilly hucks and allows the team from Kentucky to get on the scoreboard. Final score: 13-3.
Game 2: RAMJAM (Wooster, OH). Madcow opens up their second matchup with the offense rolling smoothly and the defense shutting down any kind of threat, Madcow takes half in what seemed like under 30 minutes, 7 – nil. Although scoring easily, Madcow's play was not flawless, with our endzone looking lazy and the sideline still asleep. RAMJAM gets on the board with a floaty up-line high release and a nice "ocho cinco" toe-the-line catch in the endzone. Amidst some stupid drops and poor choices, Madcow is able to ram and jam their way to an easy win. Final score: 13-1.
Game 3: Ghetto Force (Dayton, OH). The third game on Saturday found us up against the "home team???," the team from University of Dayton. This was Madcow's chance to regain some composure and play our game of ultimate, at our level. With a motivating pre-game talk lead by captains Mike "Biggs" Groeber and Rodger "R.I.P. Paul Newman" Oakes, Madcow comes out strong, striking downfield with more aggression and simply outrunning their opponent. Madcow took advantage of Dayton’s ghetto force and finished the game strong, 13-0. Cream cheese anyone?
Game 4: Boogiemen (Oxford, OH): Our last matchup in pool played proved to be our first contested game of Ultimate at this year’s sectional championship. After winning our first three games handily, we came out with little fire, allowing the Boogiemen to break us for the first point of the game. Boogiemen’s offense, composed of a couple taller players with high release forehands and team-leading intensity, continued to click and with little flaw. Dependant on their shorter guys making big plays with a couple deep layout catches and good in-cuts, Miami stuns Madcow and takes half 7 – 4. Madcow opens up the second half with 3 breaks in 4 points, forcing themselves back into the game and tying the score at 8s. The Boogiemen are tired from running a tight rotation and Madcow takes advantage with their experience and depth, highlighted by big layouts on both sides of the disc. Madcow puts their game faces back on and dances their way to a quick and over-powering second half. Final score, 13-9.
SUNDAY
Game 5: semi-finals: Joyce (Columbus, OH): Madcow starts the early morning with a fast-paced warm up and a sense of urgency following a brief scare during their last game on Saturday. With a thick layer of fog blanketing the playing field, Madcow’s rhythm was off key a touch with some off-point dumps and poor choices up field. Joyce is able to counter with high intensity, likely from blood still lingering in their liquor stream after a late night at the campsite. First 8 points are tight and with both of the Columbus teams running hard in the first half, the game was closer than the score suggests. Madcow takes half 7 -4. Joyce realizes the score and seemingly decides to focus on the rest of Sunday as Madcow continues to run their semi-finals game. Final score, 13-4.
(huge bye) : Following the semi-finals win, Madcow faces a 2 hour period prior to the finals. Time is passed with the geeks playing Carcassonne and the jocks juggling soccer balls, practicing corner kicks, and throwing the football. The hippies found themselves folding up tents and possibly vaporizing in the black jetta. Others watched Zoi or the Hellbenders battle Joyce. Willis on the other hand found himself running to the gas station for slim-jims and a 6 pack (to be used later).
Game 6: finals: LouEvil (Louisville, KY). After a long hiatus, Madcow finds themselves on the finals field, matched up against LouEvil, who apparently gave Madcow a contested game at last year's Regional tournament in Tulsa. The game opens up with strong play on both sides of the disc, with LouEvil getting the first break. Madcow wakes up and uses their throwing depth with a quick answer to LouEvil's zone defense. Led by the hustle of Timmy Meyers, Madcow D gets the break back and takes half 7-6. Madcow shows their mental focus for the first time at this years Sectionals and comes out running hard in the second half, opening up with a couple breaks and silencing their energetic sideline. Fatigued by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), as well as a tight rotation, the team from Louisville falls to the evil side of things. Biggs shuts the door on the 2008 Sectionals with an up-the-line huck to the fresh veteran Jeff Kula, who was able to get off a fast-break dump, leading to an easy swing score. Madcow wins sectionals, 13-9.
The M.A.D. jersey goes to Timmy Meyers, who stepped up to the plate and played complete shutdown defense on Sunday, hunting down opponents’ go-to guys and "mind-blasting” players all day (and night).
The C.O.W. jersey finds itself on the shoulders of David “Timberlake” Vuckovich, whose ability to find himself in the middle of every call and outright domination up-field allowed Madcow to collect its 4th consecutive sectional championship.
Next tournament: October 11 – 12, Central Open Regionals, Milwaukee, WI
Lots of work to do. For future opponents... you might want to read up.
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Tags: sectionals, versailles, tournament, disclexia, boogiemen, ramjam, ghetto force, biggs, rodger, hellbenders, zoi, joyce, willis, louevil, tulsa, timmym, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, kula, tlake, regionals, milwaukee
Categories: Tourney Recap
