Sectionals 2009
April 11-12
Ithaca, NY
Roster
Alexander "Dasky" Daskalaskis
Bryan "BJ" Jones
Timmy "Timmy J" Jacobs
Taylor "Ttops" Toppings
David "Tooth Pick" Ferraro - Captain
Zack "Trainwreck" Smith - Captain
TJ Burns
Joseph "Oreo" Onorio
Greg "Cheetara" Pollock (DNP)
Scott Ryan
Carlos "Hermano" Acosta
Mitch Wheeler
Ben "Smiles" Mcpherson (DNP)
Chris Nash (DNP)
Sarah Burns (Stat Keeper)
Bryan "Dopple" Tiernan
John "BAYNE" Bain
Nick "Doodles" Rogers
Eric "Rochester Eric" Hofegre
Jason Stiffler
Lucas "Butters" Chapman
Dani "Hot Dog" Simon (Cheerleader)

Forward by BJ:
I am writing this with the information fresh in my mind, thus it will probably be very detailed. This was a special year for GEH, marking a transition to balance and depth. The leaders worked hard to incorporate rookies because we knew we couldn't do it without them. Going into sectionals, we had extremely high hopes, and we expected to get to Regionals at all costs.
The bracket this year was different from all previous years. Instead of being in a pool, we ended up in a play in game against New Paltz. This was because of our crappy record heading into sectionals. Albany who had not won a game was ranked ahead of us because we had lost too many games by a large point differential. Never the less, we saw that the games would probably work out like so. We would predictably face New Paltz, Syracuse, St. Lawrence and then Cornell on day 1. This would send us to the semi-final game of sectionals, allowing us to be in a triple elimination before facing Cornell. We felt confident going in that if we took care of business there would be nothing in our way. Besides, Queens Kingston did not even show, and there were 4 spots open.

Saturday:
Got to the fields around 7:30 from our hotels in Ithaca. We scrimmaged as a team because historically we have gotten off to slow starts. I had injured my knee during practice before our previous tournament Roll Call, in Washington D.C. I did not know at the time, but I had completely torn my PCL and had loose articular cartilage floating around in my knee. I was able to warm up successfully and handle. I also had the privilege of calling lines so my focus was not entirely on myself but how to put the team in a position to achieve our goal.

Game 1: Vs. New Paltz 9:00 AM
This was a great game for us to begin with. Like many other times to start sectionals we considered it a warm up game. New Paltz was a relatively new team and had risen to competitive play. They were an extremely spirited bunch and some of them rooted for us later on in tournament. It was so clean that there were 0 fouls called during the game. Since I was calling subs, I focused on getting the rookies the most playing time that we could afford. I opened up the 2nd half with my first deep throw, the 1st of many in tournament. We had no doubt about this game. The game ended on Train Wreck laying-out to catch the final score. Stats were kept by Sarah Burns.

Dasky to T-tops
Dasky to TW
Dasky to TJ
Timmy to Bain
Eric to Dasky
TW to Dasky
Dasky to T-tops
Timmy to Scott
HALF 8-2

BJ to Dasky
Dasky to TW
TW to Bain
Timmy to TJ
Dasky to T-tops
Dasky to T-tops
TJ to TW
Final Score    UB-15    New Paltz-4

Game 2: Vs. Syracuse 11:30 AM
We had a long layoff before the Syracuse game since our New Paltz game ended around 10:30 AM. We took a break and watched Syracuse warm up. We wanted to make it essentially three years in a row that we would eliminate Syracuse from Regionals contention. We did not have the chance to eliminate them, but we would make their road extremely tough. At this point, the wind was blowing fiercely down the length of the field. This made it very hard to score upwind and nearly automatic on the downwind.

Early in the game, one of the teams went up 2-0 before a couple of breaks evened it out. I remember on our first offensive series easily working it up through a zone with me hitting Carlos for an easy pass in the end zone. We traded points after I hit TJ and Tooth for some long hucks. While Syracuse went up 8-7 at half, we had established the deep threat. At this point, they didn't know how we were beating them down the field so easily. This opened up the underneath cuts giving us easy offensive chances.

Considering the wind, we dominated the 2nd half with three breaks. Dasky was a dominant force assisting or scoring on 7 of the 8 points. A few of the older Syracuse players teared up as we shook hands. At this point, my knee had started to swell, but t wasn't effecting my play all that much since I was playing offense down wind.

BJ to Carlos
TW to Nick
T-tops to Dasky
BJ to TJ
BJ to Tooth
Timmy to TJ - Bookends
Timmy to T-tops
HALF 7-8

T-tops to Dasky
TJ to Dasky
TW to Oreo
Dasky to T-tops
Dasky to TJ
Dasky to Tooth
Timmy to Dasky
Dasky to TJ
Final Score    UB-15    Syracuse-12

Game 3: Vs. St. Lawrence 2:00 PM
After taking care of business against Syracuse, we had the team we were dreading playing. Part of that in my mind was confidence, they had beaten us the previous year, and we were perplexed why. The other part was because they were annoying to play against. Their style was unorthodox. Normally, you could pouch off men because most Ultimate players just don't throw those risky passes, let alone complete them over and over. This team didn't even have real jerseys! They were bunch of rag tag friends that just decided that, Hey, this might be fun.

I started off the game with a pass to TJ where he was so open that I walked off the field. At this point I became cocky that this would be an easy game. St. Lawrence, however, answered. Dasky again continued his great pace having 4 straight assists, keeping us in the game. St. Lawrence was completing fore hand after fore hand, destroying our zone and just working it up the field. Their players weren't that fast, but their handlers were solid.

After we had scored 6, we decided to change our defensive philosophy for this game, and the rest of the tournament to hard man defense. Our defensive specialists stepped it up getting layout D's, shutting down their men. Bayne, TJ, Dasky, especially came up big. At this point, I was only playing offense and just starting it up. I would usually throw the first pass and the rest would take care of itself. Bayne would come in for me on defense, and all was well.

St. Lawrence kept the game close, capping the game at the end. I believe that the score is wrong on the UPA website. I distinctly remember being up 14-12, when hard cap blew meaning that since the score could not be tied after the point we would win. We ended up scoring the next point anyways to lock it up 15-12.

BJ to TJ
Timmy to Tooth
Dasky to Scott
Dasky to TJ
Dasky to TW
Dasky to TJ
TW to TJ
Timmy to T-tops
HALF 8-7

Timmy to TW
Carlos to Eric
Tooth to TW
TW to Bain
Dasky to TJ
Dasky to Bain
Dasky to Bain
Final Score    UB-15    St. Lawrence-13

Game 4. Vs. Cornell
I did not watch this game. The majority of the veterans took the game considering we were in triple elimination and Cornell was ranked 3rd in the country. My knee had swelled to more than twice it's size, and I was done for the day. Cornell was actually angry because they were not going to play a competitive game for the third time that day. From our start point, it wasn't worth it to play it hard. Instead I watched RIT and Geneseo thinking that we would be playing one of them possibly. The team felt good, that we were so close, two wins away from making Regionals. Cornell B also shocked Syracuse, winning on universe to eliminate them from contention. 3 years of us finishing better than Syracuse was nice, but we were not satisfied. The most notable things from this game were Mitch's huck to Bayne, which was a great throw and Jason dropping the pull.

Nick to Carlos
HALF 1-8
Final Score    UB-1    Cornell- 15

Saturday Night:
We went down the road to a great burger place knowing that we would be facing the winner of RIT, Cornell B the next day. I wasn't particulary worried about facing Cornell B. We had lost to them at our home tournament when most of us were fooling around. I did think that RIT would win the game because they had beaten Carleton earlier in the season. It was a real chill atmosphere, and we were just relaxing until the next day. Everyone fell asleep pretty early, I iced my knee several times trying to get it ready for the next day. We didn't have to be to the fields that early with our first game being 11:30. We set out to be there at 9:30.

Sunday:
We left the hotel as RPI was getting up and eating breakfast. The continental breakfast was amazing, and we got to the fields to scrimmage like we had previously. I was having a tough time. The knee was extremely stiff, and I could hardly run. Dasky pointed out that I would be pretty useless because I wasn't able to run during the scrimmage. I told him no worries, I'll be ready or I'll take myself out. The team was calm but anxious. Cornell B surprisingly beats RIT 15-8. RIT didn't seem to care that much, didn't have the fire.

Game 1: Vs. Cornell B 11:30 AM
We were not scared of Cornell B, and we knew what we had to do to win the game. Deep passes in the first off and the beginning of the 2nd half set up the underneath routes like they had before. The wind was even more important as it was still blowing along the vertical direction of the field. Breaks were hard to come by, but would determine who would end up winning the game.

The unfortunate part about this game was the loss of one our best defensive players. Oreo tore his ACL attempting a foot block. We continued to play well despite Oreo unable to play. One of Cornell's B best players ended up getting injured and needed stitches. He would return to play against Union in Cornell B's next game. We win going away, 15-10. All we have to do now is win 1 before losing 2.

Dasky to Oreo
Dasky to TW
BJ to Tooth
BJ to Dasky
Dasky to TJ
T-tops to Dasky
Bain to Eric
Dasky to T-tops
HALF 8-6
Dasky to T-tops
Dasky to T-tops
Timmy to Tooth
TJ to Tooth
Dasky to T-tops
Dasky to T-tops
Carlos to TJ
Final Score    UB-15    Cornell-10

Game 2: Vs. RPI 2:00 PM
Oh RPI we meet again. 2007, we beat you to advance to Regionals. 2008 you beat us handily in pool play and advance to Regionals. We are so pumped for this game, one more win, and we're in Regionals, guaranteed 3rd place. Well, the energy didn't matter, as this is one of the games I've mostly forgotten about.

In the 1st half, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. RPI's zone was strangling our flow, and we just did not know how to deal with. We had a poor performance against zone's during the regular season, so it's no surprise we couldn't handle their four man cup with a twist.

I ended up sitting out the majority of the 2nd half, until the end when I wanted to warm up for the final game. We went down 8-0, and everyone on the team just packed it in. We did not need to win this game to go on. At this point, I tried doing my best to keep on defense but the pounding on the knee was taking it's toll. We had a couple of deep throws to keep spirits up in the 2nd half, knowing that we could move on and look at the next game.

HALF 0-8
Dasky to T-tops
Tooth to T-tops
BJ to Eric
Final Score    UB-3    RPI-15

Game 3. Vs. Union 4:30 PM
This is what we've been waiting for, and from my point of view, this could be my last game that counts for GEH. Dasky is hungry, the team is hungry, and we are confident. Ready to go after the disaster. Our conditioning and athleticism would shine this game. Union had some height but they had not ever made it this far, they didn't have the experience and the drive that we had.

Strangely, right until the game started, Union sat in their team van keeping warm. We warmed up slowly and made sure we were loose. Since this was the 4th place game and the game to go we played under observers for the first time.

Like every other game in the tournament, the first half was tight. We again established the deep threat early. This gave us the underneath all day, especially at the end when Union got tired. Every time Union scored, we would answer back, keeping us up by one. At one point, I hit Dasky three straight times deep. This would cause them to guard meet back hand for several points since my forehand was working extremely well.

The back breaker came in the 2nd half off a Union timeout. Their captain was yelling "How is a team of 5'10 guys beating us deep every single time! Just don't let him go deep!". I remember laughing about this in my head, and the next point Dasky went for the jugular. He went right after their captain, and I sent a bladey fore hand over his head. Dasky jumped over him, and grabbed it. At that point, I played it conservatively, put out heavier D lines since our offense was running so well regardless. At 13-10, Dasky put an upwind forehand that was mac'd by the best Union defender right into Tooth's chest. At 14-10, Dasky did the honors on the next point hitting TJ with a break throw to send us to Regionals.

TJ to Bain
Dasky to BJ
Dasky to TJ
TJ to Tooth
BJ to Dasky
BJ to Dasky
BJ to Dasky
Timmy to TW
HALF 8-7
Dasky to TJ
Dasky to Tooth
Dasky to Tooth
Dasky to Timmy
BJ to Dasky
Dasky to Tooth
Dasky to TJ
Final Score    UB-15    Union-10

We didn't do well at Regionals, but that didn't matter. We set out to accomplish this goal, and we did it. It's at this time, in summer of 2009 I write this, and I don't think that GEH is going to stop improving. I look at the sectionals of 2007 that made us believe we could make it to Regionals, and I look at this one thinking that it inspires us to go for higher goals. We gave the MVP trophy to Dasky, and you could have given it to him for just this performance. We also had the best rookie class we ever had, and hope to repeat our recruiting and training success of this season.