Sectionals Recap

The Illini began slowly on Saturday, giving up a lot of points to low seeded teams. It seemed that the Illini had some difficulty defending against the “desperation huck”. Luckily, no team at Regionals sees “luck hucking” as a viable strategy.

After two wins and a bye, the match-up of the day took place as the A-Team (insert theme music here) squared off against Boomland (boom, boom, boom…let me hear you say wayo, WAYO!). Boomland came into the game off two hot wins, upsetting UIC and owning Valpo. The A-Team knew it needed to put on its soul crusher boots or they’d be in for a tough game.

“Boring old Brian” led the cheer for Boomland as they roll called their starting line. I’m not too sure how the sound of a tortured ostrich pumped up the B-teamers, but they did score first. After the sympathy score, a montage of A-team domination ensued with Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger playing in the background. Memorable moments included Boomland Pat getting skied by yours truly and again by the real Pat, Keenan laying out for nearly everything and not getting a D, and Jon O running Beta X for a score.

After our best game of the day, we faced the second seed in our pool, but UIC had given up their regional hopes after the loss to Boomland. They even started shaking our hands before we had 13 points.

The sun rose on Sunday, bringing light and a semi-final math-up against Wheaton College. The D-line sexed, drugged, and rocked and rolled the Christian School all the way to the second place bracket. We had the look of a championship team.

After a three hour break, the championship game began. Many were surprised that North Park and not Notre Dame challenged us, but the Lost Boys were good enough to beat Notre Dame’s hype. North Park came out with nothing to lose, and they brought a rather large crowd to give them a mental edge. Going up three breaks to take half and another break around point 12, it seemed that North Park had the game well in hand, but the Illini wouldn’t let the fat lady sing. Led by Joel, Pat, Dave, and Jman, the Illini staged a comeback that is rarely seen outside of Hollywood. Pat played like he was possessed. I’ve never seen the old man get down on the pull that fast. He shut down their main thrower with the skill that bespoke of his D-line days as a freshman. Joel showed us why he deserved the Callahan with a no-look skying of the Lost Boys’ top long. Dave stopped at least two hucks with hand blocks and got poach D after poach D to bring the score back to 16-16. Going into double game point, the O-line stood ready to receive. Tension mounted as the sidelines rallied behind their teams. The Illini received the pull and marched it two-thirds down the field before Phenom threw a huck to Jman. The disc hung and everyone held their breath as Jman and his defender went up for the disc. The disc got tipped past both of them and wobbled towards the ground. Time seemed to slow down as Jman refused to give up. The fastest man in ultimate hit the ground running and laid out for the disc. The Illini rush the field as he held up the white plastic in triumph.

Boys, we got less than a week til Regionals. Whose gonna step up this time?