“Hail to the victors”

Michigan came away the victors in a Big Ten matchup vs. Ohio State

Michigan faced double game point not once, but twice on their road to the finals. After surviving a scare from Penn State in the quarter finals and breaking to win against Ohio, it was suspected that Magnum would have been unprepared for the finals. That was furthest from the truth, as their experience, depth, and game management allowed them to prevail 15-10 in the finals against Ohio State.

Ohio State's Phil Cherosky marks Michigan's Jeff Pape

Wind had been prevalent the entire tournament, and Michigan’s consistency would play a key role in their ability to pull away in the championship game. Ohio States miscues would be their downfall as they would give up a callahan on an errant throw, who was snagged by #12 Jesse Brauner. Michigan had an upwind break to make the score 3-1 early on. Ohio

State would march down the field to get their own upwind, but that’s the closest they would be for the rest of the game. Michigan would maintain control, being stingy with disc and limiting dangerous turnovers. The score at half was 8-5, and Magnum would continue to get opportunities to break throughout the game.

Michigan would extend the lead to 10-6 before Leadbelly showed some signs of life. Ohio State would bring the score to 11-8, and a turnover would give them a shot at converting an upwind break. However, like all game, they had an inability to deal with the windy conditions, turning it over near the goal line. Michigan wouldn’t look back, going up 12-8.

One of the more interesting plays of the game, Michigan would intentionally go offside on the ensuing point to gain more time to match-up defensively. This offense could have warranted a TMF for purposefully violating the rules, but was let go. Michigan had already acquired two TMF’s for errant spiking and would get their third on the next possession for a dangerous layout. Phil Cherosky would get the disc centered for Ohio State to make it 12-9.

Jesse Wohl pulls for Ohio State

Cherosky was the main play maker for Ohio State, darting around from the handlerposition, often receiving the disc in the power position. His hucks were not enough to give Leadbelly the game with the wind often causing them to hang in the air. Jesse Wohl was the other prominent play maker for Ohio State, but would also have a few critical mistakes of his own.

The play making on Magnum would be spread out between Jeff Pape, Spencer Jolly, Brandon Beeler, Chris Vandervoot, and Yonni Rafael. Rafael always seemed to find himself on the receiving end of a huck, and was the dominant cutter for Michigan. Jeff Pape and Brandon Beeler provided steady play at the handler position, which may have been the difference. Ohio State would get one more point, while Michigan wouldn’t let hard cap make a difference scoring the final point after the horn blew to win 15-10.

Semi Finals:

Ohio vs. Michigan

Ohio's Matt Cihon matched up with Michigan's Alex Fegert

One of my predictions came through as Ohio made it the semi-finals (I also had MSU winning the tournament) on team defense and solid play from Danny Olson (Madcow), Nick Wetzel and Mitch Cihon (Madcow). What was surprising is that Ohio wasn’t let into the original 20 team tournament, only getting in after it was expanded to 24. They were not too challenged in this tournament until this point. They closed out a game against a feisty UNC team 13-10 in the quarters, but were relatively unscathed.

Ohio was up or tied for the majority of this game, with both teams getting double breaks due to the wind. With the game tied at 8’s, and Ohio going down wind, a flick was sent to the right sideline of the end zone where #34 Kevin Hanzel laid out while getting a toe in bounds to preserve the lead. Michigan would tie the game up at 9’s sending it to universe.

Kevin Hanzel preserves the lead for Ohio late in the game

Michigan’s experience would seem pivotal on this point because they have been in situation against good teams many times before. Ohio looked tentative with the disc, despite going with the wind and being up or tied all game long. A quick turnover down field gave Magnum a shot, but the Ohio would set a zone and get the disc back. Mitch Cihon would throw away a short backhand near their own goal line giving Michigan possession within striking distance. The observers had established that time outs could be called during hard cap, and Michigan took advantage of it to set up this play below…

Ohio is a strong team and a contender to be near the top of the Ohio Valley region. They should continue to train hard, and push with confidence that they can beat good teams. I thought this defeat would be pretty crushing to them, but they were able to pick themselves back up and defeat a strong UGA team. With this tournament being sanctioned any wins against good teams will help towards that 2nd Ohio Valley bid.

Ohio State vs. Georgia

This was my first real look at Georgia playing well. On Saturday they played down to two teams, escaping with close wins. They have their fair share of play makers in Michael Slade, Matt Bailey, and Elliot Erickson (World Juniors). They seemed as about as strong as any team in this tournament, but just made more mistakes than the other team. Drops at key times allowed Ohio State to break and take half 7-5. The lead would be extended to three as Ohio State traded to win the game 12-9.

Georgia's Matt Bailey gets his hand on a disc against Ohio State

I’m not sure how I feel about Georgia later in the season. On one hand, it’s early, and they’ve got a lot of experience. On the other, they play down to opponents and could be upset at crucial times. They would lose another close one to Ohio in the following game, and I wonder how this will effect the rankings.

Quarter Finals:

Unfortunately some pressing work called and I had to scoot over to a local McDonalds with Wi-Fi to take care of some email. I arrived back near the 2nd half of most games. the scores were so low just due to the wind and turnover filled points. The temperature was relatively mild though, so players were playing hard.

Michigan-Penn State

Penn State is another Ohio Valley region team showing that they should not be considered lightly. They are scrappy group of guys that rely on tough team defense to get turns and provide their offense chances. Brian Nevison was recovering from a hamstring injury and was unable to play all of the points he wanted to. Rob Baker is one of their big cutters who provides the deep game, where as Tom Allen and Brian Magerr provide consistent solid play for the team.

Tom Allen of Penn State handling against ECU

Penn State had their chances in the Michigan game, but as before, Magnum had the experience to get breaks when they needed to. Michigan would take half after Penn State had the lead early on 8-7. As half ended, soft cap blew, giving you an idea of how slow this game was progressing. Penn State would tie it up after half, sending the game to universe. Jesse Brauner would be found in the back of the end zone on a deep huck for the win, despite being triple covered

Spank showed their youth at times, not being able to match the consistency of the bigger teams. They’re only going to get better though, as they were the one team that was consistently putting pressure on the first throw off a pull. They lost to a very good Michigan State team in the 5th place game 12-10 after handily beating Delaware 15-6.

Ohio- Delaware

Didn’t get too many notes on the game, but it was close towards the end. Delaware had an impressive run to the quarters after being seeded in the bottom of a pool, which I thought was undeserving. Ohio advances, winning 13-11.

Michigan State – Georgia

MSU's Aaron Ziegler vs. North Carolina

Georgia was able to successfully stop Burning Couch’s run by building a lead and preserving it. Up wind breaks were at a premium all tournament long and it’s tough to come back from that. Ryan Heffernan was a big play maker for Couch along with Aaron Ziegler. MSU will be fine after this tournament, and just seemed to catch some bad luck in the quarters.  They often ran a horizontal stack to take advantage of vertical space. One of their numerous cutters would run deep, and a handler would find a way to deliver it.  In the end, mistakes got the best of them in a 12-10 loss to Georgia.

Washington University – Ohio State

I unfortunately didn’t get a great look at Washington University as I was a bit more interested in seeing how Ohio and Penn State played out. Ohio State won this game relatively quickly, seeing as the score got to 15. By the time I had a chance to figure out what was going on, the game was over. Contra was a strong team who was not threatened by the lower teams in this tournament and will give stronger opponents good games.

Pre Quarters:

North Carolina- Ohio

Ohio was up early by several points, but Darkside never gives up in a game. Defensive plays and mistakes by Ohio gave Darkside a chance in this game, making it 11-10 at one point. The Bearcats held off UNC, scoring the next two points to put the game away 13-10. Darkside was once again their own worst enemy, having drops and throw aways and inopportune times. This is one team that cannot wait for Noah Saul to get back to provide some consistency. They should go into practice the next few weeks concentrating on fundamentals as their play making ability to is on par with the contenders.

Other Pre-Quarters notes:

Virgina Tech shot themselves in the foot against Michigan, but looked better than the day before. They also ended up in 9th place, so don’t count them out just yet. The only other close game was Washington University over NYU. NYU wants to do some damage in the newly formed Metro East, but proved that they have a lot of work to do. Cornell is still experienced, and you will have to be able to beat teams like Washington U consistently.

Final Thoughts:

Northern teams did well in this tournament, and I think it probably has to do with the fact that they aren’t able to scrimmage often. With the winds causing turnovers a plenty, the southern teams couldn’t rely on their play making ability to win games. Conditioning and disc skills proved to be the difference maker, as fresh legs were needed to play tough D after those long windy points.

Great Lakes seems to be down to a three team race with Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State. I don’t know much about Illinois, but both of the Michigan teams are going to be in the hunt for perhaps the only bid to nationals. Penn State and Ohio will be fighting with Ohio State for a second bid to nationals, assuming Pittsburgh will be the favorite for the first bid. Georgia didn’t get much help this weekend from the other regional teams in acquiring a second bid, and Florida showed that they are still on the next level in warm-up. Georgia Tech was pretty battered on the weekend, and I’m not going to put too much stock into their performance. Not a great weekend for the ACC as Delaware was the only team to make it to quarters. Delaware is showing that they could be making some noise in their new region despite losing Sean Keegan last year.

Four man observer crew worked the finals

The experimental rules, were not very experimental besides the contact call. It seemed unused because players weren’t used to it. Most of the time foul was called and play stopped. The one thing I did like was that TMF’s were given freely for what people would have normally thought minor instances. Although one PMF was given for a joking attempt by a player to bribe an official, all TMF’s seemed warranted to me. Players were not used to the fact that any blatant, or purposeful violation of the rules can lead to a TMF. A chest to chest mark can warrant a TMF call, or laying out carelessly into someone. Since it takes 3 TMFs for any real penalty to actually happen, they should be given out early to insure the game doesn’t get chippy.

I think enough games have been played so that I can post power rankings from the Southeast and ACC regions. Look for that and the usual posts later this week.