The first round of the 2012 USAU Club Championships offered a matchup between Northwest Champion Seattle Sockeye and North Central Champion Twin Cities Sub-Zero. Early in the game both Sockeye and Sub-Zero struggled with similar things offensively. Most turnovers in the game were on the high side of the field. That is the side from which the wind was blowing. Aside from a poach layout D from Simon Montague early in the half; pressure defense, either on the mark or downfield, were the primary means of generating turns. There were only a few flesh on disc turnovers. Downfield, both teams only seem to get constant movement from the breakside. Both teams were a bit wary of the deep ball early but by the end of the half that had subsided. Sockeye 8 – Sub-Zero 6.
Halftime for Sub-Zero provided a passionate speech from Shane Hohenstein claiming the team with a stronger belief that they will win the game, will end up winning the game. Sub-Zero had faith they would be able to generate late game breaks based on the depth of their d-line.
Their faith paid off. The D-line depth offered the consistent ability to pressure Sockeye directly off the pull wrecking havoc on designed pull plays. Sockeye, known for their ability to keep the ball moving, was struggling with getting the disc in motion off a pull. Sub-Zero rallied for a win 15 – 13.
Not pertaining to Ultimate directly, Sockeye offered the most items on their sidelines that came from either a carnival or thrift store. I saw Matty “Miggy” Zemel with a bright orange fishing vest and Xtehn “X” Titcomb with a large fish net along with an over-stuffed whale among other things. If you threw Zone on the fish and it got dissected “Blue’s Clues” was sung with passion. Despite a loss they never fail to entertain.
Feature photo by Kevin Leclaire – Ultiphotos.com
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