RecapSummer 2018Hello Kitty vs Underdog

Sorry for getting these out late.  My mom’s in town and we were in Catalina the last couple days.  I haven’t been to Catalina since I first moved to LA 22 years ago.  But it looked pretty much the same.  Good time, a lot of fun, but two days is enough.

So we’ve got a couple recaps for you from this game.  First one is from Hello Kitty’s Josh Wiensch:

The game on Thursday between Hello Kitty and Underdog was a great game. Except for a few pretty unfortunate throwing errors, both sides were playing higher level ultimate than I usually get to experience in a summer league game. I think it was mostly the intensity which was higher than usual. On the Underdog side, Armand, Matt, and Toph were doing a great job as handlers of keeping the disc moving. It was tough to guard one of them, every point, all night long. Near the end of the game, our defense was starting to figure out how to at the very least, slow them down and force many throws. I assume upfield D was solid because not many throws were making it past the handler line. I never got to see any of it since I was facing the other direction.

The whole game was very close. Kitty started on offense and scored the first point. It wasn’t pretty. I think there were four turns on each side before we finally score. The rest of the first half is much better. We mostly trade points with Underdog getting a break and then Kitty taking it back…twice. Kitty takes half 8-7. After half, Kitty scores the first point making it 9-7. We feel good. However, Underdog is a great team with some really experienced players. They aren’t going down without a fight. After we get to a score of 11-8, Underdog picks up the intensity and scores three in a row, bringing the score to 11s. This is the moment of truth. Is Hello Kitty going to do what it has during the first half of the year when the momentum changes? Are we going to cave under the pressure like we have in our Scooby, Garfield, and Cheshire Cat games? I make some comment to the line that each and every person’s attitude can have a collective effect on every other person on the line. I ask everyone to keep their heads up, fight it out, and win this point. And we do…win that point and the subsequent three points in a row finishing the game 15-11.

Shoutouts to Matt, Armand, and Toph for, as I said already, moving the disc against us with little resistance. Shoutout to Cortez for getting open at will and to Michael for his great defensive plays. Also, Johnny got a D on me in the endzone which is going to bother me all week. Good job.

On the HK side, Amy and Daniel played solidly as handlers, laying the foundation for the rest of our offense. Tracy was cutting great in the second half and caught some critical 20-30 yard unders which got our offense moving. Overall, great game everyone!

That’s an impressive win for Hello Kitty.  Although Alex Carey didn’t put out a mid-season power rankings this year, I know he’s bullish on Underdog, as I am as well.  I played in the Garfield game where we came back against Hello Kitty and it was a rare case where I felt after a win that we didn’t earn it as much as they gave it to us.  They definitely have a lot of talent, and were just struggling, so maybe they’ve turned a corner and Hello Kitty will be a big upset candidate at the tournament.

Here’s the second recap from Underdog’s side:

A Sadcap.

By Stephanie Hicks

Underdog started on defense. We had FOUR opportunities to break Hello Kitty in the first point. We turned them all on the endzone. They hucked it to Avatar. We threw a zone. They broke it. We traded points. There were a lot of hucks to Avatar and Josh that they came down with. Then Underdog went up a break 7-6. Hello Kitty tied 7-7. There were a lot of calls, and subsequent stoppage of play to discuss. Both teams turned it over a few more times. After a marathon point, Hello Kitty took half.

I gave another rousing speech, we came out pumped, but turned it over a few more times and HK scored and went up 11-8. We got our heads out of our asses and started running vert stack and forcing them backhand. Mikey and Toph had a few layout D’s a piece. Johnny shut down Josh with an awesome D in the endzone that was much talked about at the bar. Chris boxed out one of their fast guys who’s name I don’t know and came down with a sweet score. Cortez had sticky hands on awesome hucks all night. Underdog tied it up 11-11, but then the curse of our offense all night was that we just kept throwing it to nobody or dropping it. At one point on defense, I tripped on my own feet and K-Chu scored. Hello Kitty played hard D. We weren’t chilly with our throws, there was some much debated calls and discussion. And in the end Hello Kitty got three breaks in a row to win 15-11.

Mikey presented Toph with the Underdog. Lots to work on for next week. The ladies felt like punishing ourselves and the lights were still on, so we did sprints by having Toph and Brandon huck it to four of us and we sprinted back and forth full field to see who could come down with it. All the ladies are ten years younger than me (at least), and easily beat me in sprinting, so after about 10 passes or so I might have bowled Cortez over to prove myself… And then the sprints ended and Sam started teaching everyone handstands. Subsequently after goofing around for awhile, no one showed up at the bar from either team except Chris, Johnny and I. It was dominated exclusively by Seth’s team, but the three of us Underdogs definitely outlasted them, shutting it down with Seth at 1:30am… and today I’m tired and don’t have any creative or eloquent recap in me. Maybe next week after Underdog starts our comeback streak.

Oh man, it’s been a long time since I purposely did wind sprints at the end of a game.  That is a young person’s game.  These days it sounds awful.

Underdog could be in a rare position of having to replace their top male and female at the tournament.  So far, unless something changes, Cortez will be at a Wildfire practice on the 11th.  (And don’t think I haven’t tried to get them to change their mind on that.)  And depending on how well the Aviators do, Matt may end up missing the tournament as well.  If so, how would that change the team dynamic?  Remains to be seen.