3/21 - Running with Sideshow

Saturday morning a group of us headed down from Philly to scrimmage with the UDel mens team to push them in games and also run some defenses/offenses against them for their benefit. Our old man team consisted of Dusty, NickM, Ellis, Nick Hiranet, Matt Glazer, Furf, Brandon Redding, myself, and a few other Del alums.

We started of just playing and the Del kids let their heads get in their own way. Clearly there was an intimidation factor as we just blew them off the field for the first 10 or so points. We then played a game to 7 and Del got their feet under them. They got a couple breaks, I was responsible for two terrible turnovers, mostly on dumps that could also be chalked up to players who aren't used to playing with the each other. They were up 6-5 until we rolled off three straight to win 8-6.

Delaware was having issues with their continuation cuts and the timing associated with them and also clearing out on cuts that were not thrown to. They'd complete a dump and a swing and then the next look would be too early, or too late. Their endzone patience was fantastic which was a significant issue for them the last time I came down and worked with them so that improvement was nice to see.

Delaware then asked us to give them a few points of really balls out hard defense. The result was probably a little more than they were looking for as we started the next game by going up 5-0 and they had a LOT of trouble moving the disc. They made it somewhat respectable by the end but the game ended 9-4 or 5ish.

Lastly we ran some zone against them in 5 pull which turned into like 8 pull. We ran some crazy zone that GW apparently ran against them that involved taking the up-deep and covering the swing handler on a trap. Either we weren't running it right, or UDel figured out how to beat it because once they got the disc up-field our lack of an up-deep made the middle of the field WIDE open and ruined us. It also wasn't that windy which made everything easier.

Ended up being a great day of ultimate and a beautiful day to be outside. Dusty, Ellis, Nick and I headed home, stopped at Dock Street Brewery, had a few beers and talked local politics for about an hour and a half. Times like these remind me of why I'm excited the season is getting going again. I miss my teammates.

Team First!