Saturday night always has the most potential for things to get out of hand at Nationals. All but six teams hit the bars to drink away their sorrows and forget the blunders from the last three days, whether it be a slow start in pool play, a heartbreaking tie-breaker, or a ridiculously tough bracket matchup. When the power pool whirlwind of action settled it set up one half of the quarter-finals games between the 3 NW teams, Sockeye, Jam, and Revolver, and powerhouse Johnny Bravo. The overall feeling of these two quarters was one of urgency. A sectionals rivalry between the two bay area teams and a rematch of last year's finals. With the games being on adjacent fields only a few minutes would pass before the roar of the sidelines exploded as one team scored a goal, sending their opponents walking 70 yards. Bravo earned and held onto a few breaks through the game before Sockeye clawed back to force universe point. The Bravo offense was patient in dumping the disc and constantly isolating Beau in the lanes with Sebby staying a cautious 5 yards behind him. A misstep by Sebby under, Beau already cutting deep, and a high blade over Sebby who had to jump early to make a bid, and Bravo manages to take the game over a shell shocked Seattle squad.
On the next field Jam was running their precision O with Revolver already behind and trying to fight back. I was surprised to see and hear how loud their team was playing. After watching the Furious game-to-go for the last bid at Regionals I definitely noticed how indifferent they were even during the crunch times and on double-game point. Gabe injured himself in this game on a huge bid in the endzone off an around flick from Bart that went too far. Jam clenched the game and sent Revolver to join Sockeye.
The Jam/Bravo semi again saw Jam transition into their reserved, almost indifferent, gamemode. Each score on offense and each break on defense was hardly celebrated. It definitely seemed like a conscious team choice to tone down the intensity and passion. Bravo could never get into a groove or string enough points to come back from a 15-11 loss. On the other half of the bracket, Ironside took care of business through Ring and Chain to set up a pool play rematch between the Boston and SF teams in the finals.
Do not schedule finals at 9 AM in the morning. We wanted to leave early to stake out good spots and I was almost worried when we arrived minutes before game time. Then I saw the fields and laughed, the sidelines were sparsely populated with spectators. I guess other teams had a tough time shaking their hangovers from the previous night's alcohol too. Two vertical stack team in the finals with contrasting offensive sets, Jam looking to dump/swing the disc, hit the unders, and break the mark, while Ironside setting up throws before Forch launched it to deeps like Jeff Graham. Jam once again played in their conservative shells and went into the game knowing the gameplan, forcing backhand almost the entire time and not throwing zone even in the gusty crosswinds. The MVP of the game was definitely Jon Remucal who had the tough defensive assignment to contain Forch. He kept up very well with the speed demon and put on an aggressive mark to contain the deep shots as much as possible. I think he had two huge D's even though I view it more as D'ing the thrower instead of D'ing the cutter (Forch). Unless a cutter fails to go-to the disc, D's usually mean the throw was poor and Rem worked hard to challenge the tight throws to Forch. Also with Gabe injured and Idris playing only one point the entire game, it put a lot of pressure on Scow and Safdie to steer the O line handling and they performed to get the job done. I could count the number of times Jam hucked the disc with one hand, they were content to hit the unders and their dumps consisently got open to reset the count. A team that stacked with talent let the discipline of a simple offensive set carry them to victory. It was boring to watch and boring to shoot with very few layout bids and sky balls but it serves as a reminder to all of us that offense should be boring. Jam took the final point and still didn't break out in too many cheers. A club championship title that eluded them 4 years ago was finally theirs and their faces of disbelief were hidden by quiet hugs with teammates. Congrats to Cissna and the rest of Jam for winning when it counted.
I didn't watch the Mixed final and I went to the car and fell asleep during the Women's game. My bad.
