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TiC’s Saturday started early and cold. At 8am the temperature was a freezing 28 degrees. Conditions warmed by the second round and the rare sun shown upon a normally rainy Oregon.
Oregon State's Patrick Buermeyer lets it fly against Utah
Getting DIRTy
Western Washington DIRT showed up in Corvallis to play. Huge step up performances came from sky master Eric Peterson and the young handler Sam Pickles all day. While the entirety of Western’s play was still unrefined, the impressive display was how well on field leaders like Seattle high school star Casey Bateman and Allan Laviolette integrated younger players into the DIRT offense better than any team this weekend. If Western continues this precedent of improving their new talent, DIRT could give Whitman or even the University of Washington some serious trouble in the series.
The match of the day turned out to be regional rivals 3rd seed Victoria against 4th seed Western Washington. Victoria started out flat, going quickly down 3 breaks off mostly errant, unforced turnovers. On a whole, points were like 12” chili dog: long and sloppy many containing over eight turnovers. DIRT simply capitalized on the long play.
At the depth of their hole UVic was down 8-4. Yet, Victoria went on a 4-0 run toward the end of the game due to some huge layout blocks by Kevin Underhill, D’s by Taylor Nadon, and impressive back to back goal line stands resulting in turns and break points. The clock ran out on Uvic leaving them behind Western Washington 12-11 after hard cap. While the late game run by UVic shows resilience and bodes well for the coming season, younger players will have to step up later in future tournaments to alleviate the burden on Underhill and Nadon’s shoulders.
Other Uvictims of the day were freshman Tom Rowe and Colin Featherston. While Rowe did have a few unnecessary turns, he showed the poise and finesse of a great (and getting better) handler. Featherston, a sophomore, filled a much needed role in the Uvic line up giving their team a solid reset handler as well as carefully timed deep shots.
Beavers
Oregon State easily handed the University of Utah and Reed College in Pool B. Players like Patrick Buermeyer and Greg Meshnik took the throws they wanted championed OSU to their wins. Reed College’s Sam May was a stand out for the team despite their loss. Oregon State did post a loss to Portland State University, a majority of Rhino ringers contributed to that matchup.
Seeing OSU match against UVic should be a great battle.
No One Puts Ego in a Corner
And, of course, no one touched Oregon Ego. They rolled through their pool with little resistance, testing their new players and defenses with ease. The morning was highlighted by an Ego Callahan in their second round match versus Lewis and Clark by Brian “Mystery Toes” Penner. Dylan Freechild, Ian Campbell, and Aaron Honn all got plenty of reps and are looked refined.
The only weakness I can arbitrarily point out in Ego’s play is that they seem to be lacking height. While they certainly compete well and handle any match up with efficacy, I am curious to see how Ego will handle any team with a goon squad of a few 6’+ receivers on the field at once.
Lewis and Clark showed poise through their loss to Ego, effectively running a few set plays mostly between Ben Lohre and Kelly Van Arsdale (Rhino teammates).
Fugue
On the women’s side again the story was Oregon. During their second round they played a one turnover game. Count them…one. Even against a team of nearsighted nine year olds that amount unforced turnovers would be impressive.
Oregon tested their junk D, played around with handlers and young lines, and pretty much did what they wanted. The level of athleticism of some like Christina Schueler, Kimber Coles, Bailey Zahniser and so many other Fugue players is just a level above everyone in the state, probably the country.
Western Washington ladies, Chaos, did give Oregon a startling late day match up, putting last year’s runner up in a 2 point deficit. It was Oregon’s coach Lou Burruss who recognized, called the time out, spoke maybe ten words to them, and had his ladies go out and put up a 10-1 run.
Follow the Action
Skyd’s Adam Restad will be covering Trouble in Corvegas this weekend and will be tweeting scores and highlights @Skyd_Adam
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