Seeded 3rd, Grit expected to do exceedingly well at sectionals.  The way the pools were set made our trip to the finals look like smooth sailing.  This was a classic case of "over-confidence".  The weekend ended up as expected, but the team certainly created cause for doubt along the way.

 

Saturday morning was cool and cloudy.  Everyone was excited to be playing in great weather after weeks of rain in DFW.  Pool play consisted of three games against Riverside 2, Plasticville, and Black Angus (in that order).  We came out slow all morning letting weaker teams into games with lazy defense allowing the other team to pick up trashy swill.  Finally, during our last game of pool play against Black Angus, we started to turn up the heat.  Things were looking great in the first half and the team cruised to victory in the second half.

 

Then things fell apart.

 

With little time between pool play and the quarterfinals, Grit had to quickly change fields to face Harriet Tubgirl.  We were glad we had won the Angus game, but the excitement from the first half had worn off.  Frankly, we came out and tripped over our own feet.  Harriet Tubgirl came down with poor hucks off of offensive turnovers.  Grit had to work three times has hard on offense and it created three times the anxiety.  Defense couldn't get the offense off the field and the game stayed far too close for comfort.  Finally, in true form to our level of play during the game, we ended on the losing side of universe point. 

 

To say we were disappointed would be an understatement.  We had beaten ourselves in every aspect of the game.  Luckily, we would have an opportunity to redeem ourselves on Sunday.

 

Note, it should be said that Saturday night was a key factor in letting go of the loss to Harriet Tubgirl.  The team once again honored the glorious establishment of Austin's Pizza.  This year was a special year because the City of Austin was hosting the University of Texas versus Texas Tech University football game at Darrell Royal Memorial Stadium.  In other words, the bar was full of less than sober UT and TTU fans. 

 

In brief: the night was filled with introducing our non-big 12 fans to the big 12 bar.  Flip cup ensued, $5 lone star pitchers, Texas wins. 

 

Sunday morning came very early.  Some of the team had stayed out a bit too late to be fully awake for 7:00AM warmups.  One fortunate outcome of Saturday's loss was that we were able to play Crude.  Despite a few inter-squad scrimmages at less than full strength, this was an opportunity for both teams to really show each other how hard we had been working all season.  It was really great to play each other at full strength.  Crude has been working exceptionally hard all season.  It was a great (but early) game.  The strong start was crucial for our most important game of the day against our biggest sectionals competition, Suess.

 

Heading into the game against Suess, we were eager to prove ourselves.  The captains gave a great pre-game talk and the team was fired up and ready to go.  Despite strong efforts on either side, the game was very close.  Suess was up for most of the first half.  They managed to pull down bobbled catches and swilly throws that really helped them keep the lead (Darroh had the luckiest catch ever for a score, the disc wobbled on top of him as he rolled on the ground(2-3 times)... the disc never touched the ground).  In the second half, the game really started to turn our way.  After getting back into the game with a few breaks the score was 10-9, game to 11, Grit wins 11-9. 

 

Our last game was against Black Angus.  We were a little tired from the Suess game, but ready to play none the less.  Despite a poorer showing than Saturday's game, the rematch was still heavily in Grit's favor.  After the game was done, the team was exhausted.  Unfortunately, the weekend was physically and emotionally draining. 

 

Bottom line: Grit takes 2nd place after a roller coaster weekend going 7-1.  Regionals is less than two weeks away.  We have something to prove.