SECTIONS

Hey this is incredibly late but I don't care what you guys think so here it is. I was thinking about spoiling the ending for everyone but everyone already knows. BUT I'M STILL NOT GOING TO SPOIL IT. This writeup is from the perspective of me on the sidelines since Huck Finn is cursed and i've gotten injured two years in a row there. Boycott Huck Finn 2011!

SATURDAY (we weren't in the park we were at the polo fields)

First game against Kurtesy's alma mater Valpo. The score was 11-1 pretty much a beatdown. Kurt got heckled for the whole game and kept mentioning that we should start punching him in the nuts more often. I guess I could mention some good plays but Im not going to since we won 11-1 and good plays just aren't as good when you are playing a team that is substantially worse than you.

After the early morning beatdown we came up against Purdue. Story of this sad game was the d-line not being able to convert. We kept getting it on the wide side and Purdue's third handler poached an incredible amount. This apparently led to mass chaos and many turnovers. I wanted to hurt all d-line handlers during this game a lot alot. But I also don't want to talk about this game because of later tournament happenings WHICH I'M NOT GOING TO SPOIL. Final score 11-8 in favor of Purdue. Wego had a sick D in this game. Here's the facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/kmckinl2?v=photos#!/photo.php?pid=56164639&id=1950727&fbid=10100127162547050

Next we bageled two B-teams (Notre Dame and then Indiana).

We were 3-1 going into our fifth and final pool play game. Games were to 11 on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. Game 5 brought JUNK from university of chicago and also Zubair Abdulla. Some of you may know him from playing on Illinois for the past four years. Zubs plays O on Chicago so Ryan got the honor to guard and play against him. I think Walden got in there a little bit too. I video recorded this game with the instructions to just follow zubair. Ryan roasted zubs upline a few times and we ended up getting the best of Chicago with a 11-5 win. I also got a really good shot of zubair throwing a forehand out of bounds in case anyone was wondering. We ended saturday 2nd in our pool. Notre Dame realized that they were going to play us first round on Sunday and they benched all their good players for their fifth game on saturday. They lost 2-11 to Loyola. We let up 17 points altogether on Saturday, 2 points away from letting up 15 which Walden claimed was "inconceivable".

he didn't fall? inconceivable. basically

SUNDAY

Game 1 vs. Notre Dame

Everyone was really jacked up for this game which was awesome. We beat notre dame at Mardis Gras and we knew that Notre Dame was going to be thirsty. We started the game with a break to really get people going and set the tone for the game. Gloves and the dude #33 on Notre Dame were pretty much doing everything for them. We broke twice in a row before half to bring the score to 8-5 at half. The o-line then completed the break after half followed by two more d breaks to bring the score to 11-5. I think we played the best we had all year on Sunday at Sectionals and it all started with the Notre Dame game. Everyone on the team was making plays and we were showing that everyone on Illinois can make big plays and do big things. The D-Line was crazy efficient in the first half of this game and only had 1 turnover. 5 breaks in one half with only 1 turnover is pretty sick if you ask me. After going up 11-5, Notre Dame finally made the run we knew they were waiting to make. They broke twice in a row and then got two more shortly thereafter to bring the score from 11-5 to 13-11. Neal had a couple of really big d's on Notre Dame hucks, but Notre Dame's defense picked up a ton in the second half as well. The main reason for Notre Dame's comeback was a zone that they threw in the second half which was working really well against us. Notre Dame tied the game at 13s which brought DGP with us starting on offense. Notre Dame threw their zone and we were having some major trouble moving upfield when Ryan threw a series of RIDICULOUS forehand cross field breaks through the cup finally break the zone. Ryan did work and the offense was not about to let this game slip away. Finally Walden threw the game winning goal to phenom for the 14-13 win. Walden only played 18 out of the 27 points in the game.

Next we had semis vs Ball State. At Huck Finn we lost to the Wash U alumni in quarters, but Wash U had a bunch of broken players so decided to forfeit the game which would have put us against Ball State in semis. A lot of nonsense happened after that regarding Wash U's "forfeit" and Ball State refused to play us since we didn't actually win the game. People were pissed about this and everyone was looking forward to playing Ball State at sections. We got our wish and made Ball State pay. This game was way closer than it should have been. Ball State ran the patented circle cut from the force side back to the force side and our defense couldn't handle it. Balls Taint scored about a million times on blady throws down the sideline to ridiculous sideline fade cuts. We trailed at half by 1 but we finally got our shit together in the second half to eventually take the game 15-13. Some nub on ball state showed Pappy the disc after catching a pretty much uncontested goal. Ryan also almost fought some kid who didn't play a point the whole game after a confrontation in the handshake line. Walden again played 18 points and Charlie had a huge game with a bunch of d's and goals. This game was also highlighted by Sul just annihilating his defenders all across the field.

Finals against Purdue was revenge for the bad loss we had on Saturday against them. This game was pretty much a highlight reel for Illinois. Charlie was just demoralizing Purdue defenders by catching several hospital disks over a minimum of 2 Undue players each time. Pappy had a big sky and everything was going our way. Purdue failed to complete any of the ridiculous hucks they had been converting on Saturday and we blew them out. Charlie had another monstrous game with 5 d's, 4 assists, and 3 goals. Pappy took home the coveted sky patrol hat with koopa troopa on the front. A couple of other hats got handed out, I think Neal took the "I drink your milkshake" one.

We have had a lot of problems throughout the season with putting away teams after going up big, but we didn't falter here. This purdue game was a big confidence booster going into Regionals as we went ahead and stayed ahead to eventually win 15-5 and take home the Central Plains Open Sectionals championship. Congratulations to everyone on a great Sunday and a great tournament finish. Thanks to all the fans and parents who came out to support us in Naperville. We had a packed sideline the whole weekend and that was really awesome.

Charlie's friend's Dad was taping on Sunday and put up two videos on vimeo that everyone should scope. Here is the link: hi

At this time of posting we have one more practice until Regionals and the biggest tournament of the year. This is what everything comes down to. Hopefully we will see some Illinois supporters in Bloomington, everyone should come if they have the time.

REGIONS!

Huck Finn Wrapup

How about that UPA huh? I had another blog post halfway written over spring break about how much the current strength bid system sucks. I should have some motivation to finish it now that it's victimized the Great Lakes region. Looks like we'll just have to win the region I guess.

One thing we learned about the current UPA system from Huck Finn, is how little concern anyone has for unsanctioned tournaments. Rather than taking the regular season more seriously as a whole, I find that we just care less about certain games. We encountered this situation both on Saturday and Sunday.

Our first game was against Purdue. As we should have expected from a team in our section, they came out gunning for us. As we have many times this season, we came out really flat. They collected a couple breaks on us right away in the game, putting undue pressure on the D-line. (Ha! Get it?) After what seemed like an eternity, we collected ourselves and stuck it out for an all-too-close win. The wind, though calm in the morning, picked up as this game dragged on. Had we known this would happen, we probably would not have chosen to let them start on offense going downwind. Lookin' at you, Walden! Illinois over Purdue 12-10.

Next up was St. Olaf. I know a couple of guys on the team who are summer league ballers, so I was expecting a closer game. Apparently they exhausted their ballitude winning the first round over over Texas State. Our D-line tore them to shreds for a 13-6 win. Highlight: I throw a push pass to a stationary Hidaka for the goal, at which point he is tackled at full speed by an overzealous defender. Hilarious.

This is the part where things start to get crazy. Both St. Olaf and Purdue took down Texas State, prematurely giving us the 1 seed out pf the pool. Enough of us realize this to seriously affect our competitive fire, and Texas State beats us without much of a fight. I really don't remember much about this game, simply because I didn't care about the outcome. I referred to this earlier, but it seems like having some regular season games count really highlights the fact that the others don't. On one of the last points of the game, Sid's guy goes deep on a turn, and Sid collapses on the field halfway to the goal line. Minus one O-line handler. Texas State wins shortly after. I can't really talk, since they beat us, but these guys have the one seed going into South regionals. That region is in for some trouble at natties. Texas State over Illinois 11-8.

Our pool win gives us a bizarre bracket play / crossover game against Michigan for the rights to the top half of the bracket. The loser switches to the bottom half, and effectively plays prequarters again. I would complain about this crazy ass format, but it ended up giving us our only game against a high-level team of the weekend. Our lack of intensity from the Texas State loss carried over into the beginning of the Michigan game. This was contrasted with Michigan's absolute fury over losing to us in semis of regionals last year. The first half of the game was their revenge. Our O-line couldn't connect on routine passes, while theirs was. They ran set plays to the breakside, uncontested by our marks. They came up with all the 50/50 discs, though not by following the rules. Before anyone really knew what was happening, they had taken half 7-2. During the break we reiterated what our goals for that game were, and we came out looking a lot better. Just looking better wasn't enough. Illinois 7 - Michigan 13.

Day 2
Prequarters take two pitted us against St. John's, another Central region team. These guys came out hot, getting a couple breaks against our O-line to start things off. Our D-line was looking even better - getting our breaks back plus more. The score went back and forth a bit throughout the game, but there was never really any doubt who was in charge of things. The wind, though calm in the morning, switched back to its regular blustery and parallel to the fields persuasion. After joking with Kurt in the morning about I'd never thrown a thumber in a game, I decided to bust one out in this game. On game point, St. John's came at us with zone going downwind. They were quickly informed of their mistake by a cross-field thumber to a very ready Kevin Bruns. After a few more passes, the game was over. The real highlight of this game was when Walden decided he didn't want to lose, and kicked things into overdrive. That's one more defender who's going to have Big Nasty nightmares. Illinois over St. John's 13-10.

The Wash U Alumni came into this next game looking to slap us around a little bit. While we haven't played Wash U in the last couple of years, the guys on this team showed the remnants of what used to be a pretty good rivalry. Unfortunately, nobody on our team feels the same way, and subsequently we were not nearly as motivated to win as they were. Many of their players were perfectly comfortable jacking the disc straight into the increasingly formidable wind, while we could barely keep our grip on short throws. We were plagued by drops and silly turnovers throughout the game, and unable to capitalize when they messed things up. The Contra Alum went up early and held on to their lead for a 13-10 victory. As soon as it was over, they cracked some beers and took their cleats off. Their mission of beating Illinois was accomplished, and they were no longer interested in the tournament. They informed us that they would tell the TD that we had won the game so we could advance in the bracket. Ball State (our potential next opponent) wanted none of this, and demanded that we not advance. After a short vote, we decide not to play in the 5th place bracket, and instead stay to heckle Ball State while they beat down on an unenthusiastic Wash U Alum team.

I'm still (several weeks later) not sure what to make of the loss to the Wash U Alum. I'd love to rationalize it, but there's really no excuse. We should have seen it coming and focused right from the start. It's a lesson we've had to experience over and over and over this year. Sectionals proved the same thing.

Speaking of which: Illinois wins CP Sectionals after a year's absence from the top. I said I'd have this writeup out tonight, but it looks like Sid is planning on doing it. I'm off the hook! I hope this blog post makes sense. I've been busy, so I wrote it in like 4 different sittings and am not willing to proof read. Boom Wego.

Austin

Don't Bug Me Just Yet

I know there's some sort of unwritten rule against posting to say that you'll post later, but I feel like I have to. I'm halfway through the Huck Finn writeup that I started in class on Friday, and halfway through another post about how much the rankings suck that I started weeks ago. They're both on another computer, and I'm out of town.

Something to look forward to: The real reason our results are not ranked!

Sectionals is coming up, and Zubair is itching for an upset in the Illinois - Chicago game. Prepare to be forced backhand, sir. This should be the tournament where we really assert ourselves. I don't think I can handle things playing out like they did last year. I much prefer that our team clicks sometime before 2 games into regionals.

An even more important event is also on the horizon - the first ever (probably) Illinois vs. Illinois Alum game. While I typically dread playing against old people (i.e. the time I almost killed a guy at my first CHC), beating up on some former Illinois players should be a whole lot of fun. Maybe Sul will finally get his chance to sky Stupca. The Red Baron vs. Candyman matchup will be one for the ages.

I'm trying not to get carried away - I have homework to do.

EDIT: I should probably throw this in
http://scores.upa.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/6568
The water jugs and bathrooms are marked on the map! HOW COOL IS THAT!

Austin