The Condors looked great yesterday in two not close games against strong teams. Their long game was firing on all cylinders with several throwers getting in on the mix and both their shorter faster players running down beautifully placed hucks and their tall deeps skying for scores. Will they continue to slow the game down as they play zone (some of the Condors Jam points saw thirty throws a possession)? Furious needs to get around the Condors' tall aggressive cup on offensive, and slow down the Condors whirling dervish (shorter players JD Lobue Jr, Steve Dugan, and Jason Seidler). To do that, Furious needs to look better than they did in their semi-final matchup. A healthy Mike Grant is key (his injury subs yesterday didn't look like they would have any impact on his legs), and Furious will be much better off of his longer throws are connecting. They didn't have much trouble getting open yesterday, and may present some better matchups to guard the long shots from the Condors. They looked their best when showing some patience on offense and working it under late in their last game, but didn't see a whole lot of zone despite yesterday's wind.
After an earlier rain shower, the sun is back with a few clouds. The wind has come and gone through the first two finals, it's hot, and the crowd that failed to materialize for the first round (Mixed) is finally here, and they're eager to see some hard fought play after watching a blowout in women's.
The Condors have a couple injuries. Corey Sanford is out, Andy Crews has been out the last couple months but started playing yesterday and is expected to play today. Jason Seidler, meanwhile, hyper-extended his knee during the Jam game. He may not be at top speed. Everyone else should be healthy and ready to go.
Furious is fairly healthy, although their main player, Mike Grant was on the receiving end of a shoulder contusion in yesterday's semis. He came back to play in that game, but isn't able to raise his arm over his shoulder. That won't change his ability to run. Jeff Cruickshank has knee issues, but he's been playing without some helpful parts there for a while.
This is the fifth out of the last six years that the Condors have been in the finals. Furious has been here three of the last four years, so we're getting no one new to this game.
Husak pulls, a short throw from Savage to Cruikshank and it's a hucks and Mike Grant pulls down the disc just short of the endzone. He puts it in to Lugsdin. The Condors in a strategy switch from yesterday play person.
Furious is showing junk on after their pull. )) grabs a nice deep d. The condors are playing person again. Evan Wood hucks it, but Condor Adam Glimme almost gets the D. Foul, and Furious Rick Melner has the disc on the line. Condors forcing forehand, into the wind. The open side/line is East. North endzone. A throw into the ground by 77, and Condors have the disc back. Furious shows junk again. James Studarus picks the disc up, and the Condors work it. Dugan turns it over on a cross field, Furious has an uncontested foul near the endzone, and Evan Wood throws the forehand into the ground of the endzone. More junk from Furious, maybe a 1-3-3. Now Furious goes to man, a nice hammer down the field, and a wide open JD Lobue Jr.. The hammer came from Andy Crews, and we're tied. 1-1.
Condors come person again, Grant has to go to the ground to make a catch, the Condors are forcing upwind (East). 20 forces a throw into the ground and the Condors have the disc again. Furious is now man. A foot block from Mark Roberts gets the disc back at midfield. A couple more throws upfield, some dumps, too many people cutting to the open side, and Furious is spread wide across the field with no stack in sight. A foot block by Chris McManus and the Furious O is struggling. The Condors work it up the sideline, but a floaty throw hits the ground and the Condor makes the right call. Mike Namkung comes from the weak side on some help D and a layout in the endzone surprises the Furious receiver. 12 hucks and Chris McManus lays out with an attempt for the trailing edge. Over it goes, and we're not taking care of the disc. Or it's tough D. Lugsdin hucks down the west line (backhand), but it's way out in front of Grant. A horrible hospital pass from the Condors, and it's another turn. Gabe Sankeah doesn't go to a disc, and it's right between him and Namkung. There's a call on the contact, but Furious keeps the disc as they consult the Observer. Everyone should be tired, Furious works it across the field, and there's a score to Mark Roberts from Oscar Pottinger on a backhand. We're 18 minutes into the game, and its 2-1.
Let's see if we got the turns out of our system. But first a re-pull on an off-sides call. Earlier in the tournament, Sockeye had asked for a re-pull, but dropped it on the next pull. This doesn't happen for the Condors, as the Condors show some patience and the disc hits the endzone sideline for a brick. Furious is forcing middle, there's a few throws, a break, and down the sideline it is with backhands and Andy Crews hitting Brandon Steets for the final throw in the series. Score tied, 2-2.
Another brick out the West side, a couple swings with Lugsdin pulling down a tough short catch, and Mike Grant fakes backhand, then takes a pretty forehand down the line to show that his shoulder isn't hurting him that much. Mark Roberts runs down the disc in the endzone, and we're back to pretty ultimate.
Lugsdin(?) gets a hot D for Furious on a big hammer across the field against the Furious junk, Condors get a break, and aren't afraid of the hammer, and Lobue pulls it in from Tommy Burfeind and it's 3-3.
Condors are playing person still, Furious works it down, it's all familiar names (with some Enns in the mix) and Grant goes to Lugsdin with another forehand going away. 4-3 Furious.
Jason Seidler ignores the advice of medical non-experts s he comes in for his first point. Furious just man, but the Condor's put a hard backhand to no one. Furious is in their own endzone, and the Condors play their first zone. Steets and Studarus marking. Furious hammers across the field and out it goes twenty yards up, so the zone works, and we'll see more of it. The Condors have a nice break throw, but can't hold on, and again with the cup. It's almost a 4 person cup, with Tommy Burfeind in the middle of the cup. Furious is handling the zone much better than Jam did yesterday, although a long chance from Furious turns the disc over down the field. It looks like a straight up Furious mark, and Burfeind almost gets the disc. Furious gets it off the line, moves up the field, it's a long throw but it gets Ded long by Husak. Husak also got the D when the zone broke down. Michael Enns gets a wonderful D just inside the endzone, Steets calls a foul, and boos erupt from the crowd. After a discussion between the two players, Steets does the right thing and there's no call. It's Condors zone time again. The cup seems a bit looser than yesterday, although there's still contact on the marks. Mellner and Al Nichols are handling, and after some swings, Furious gets it up the field a bit. There's a time, although not because of a high stall count, as there isn't particularly strong pressure. Furious just wants to figure out how they want to take on this zone. Seven turns to this point, and Furious is looking for the break. Evan Wood gets some touches, and Furious goes up the upwind side with Allan Cowan hitting CJ Harmer to end it, but it's a team effort. Up the break. 5-3.
Buchanan throws behind his receiver after a few completed passes and the Condors are in trouble with Furious half way to their goal. Furious works it across as they have a spread offense that has the receivers cutting from the two sides of the fields towards the middle. We're near the endzone, so the deepest player is only 20 yards away, but that's how it's been for Furious all game. A couple calls later, and Furious has the disc in the middle of the field. There's a discussion of who knows what. The disc comes in, and Furious Enns has the disc on the endzone line. He calls a foul as he thinks that he was pushed out of the endzone by Lobue on the contact, although I'm not sure who made the call. Al Nichols catches it just short of the endzone (as the active observer notes). This takes both teams by surprise, and Nichols finds Grant not covered too tightly and it's a three point lead for Furious. They're on a three point run. 6-3.
Husak trusts his receiver on the next possession, as he makes an under throw while his receiver is still going deep. The receiver comes back gets the disc, there's a swing, and Namkung catches the disc in front of his teammate on a short forehand from Dugan. Namkung lays out, of course. 6-4.
Some throws across the field for Furious, Mike Grant gets it on the upwind sideline, and a backhand in front of Andrew Lugsdin is chased down in the endzone. 7-4.
In the 2000 finals, Furious had the same score against the Condors, and the Condors came back to win. But this is a more experienced Furious team, so we'll see what happens. Furious comes with junk again, there's some contact on a Lobue catch that stops play. The Condors are not hucking like they did yesterday, but probably because of the Furious D. Steets gets a nice bid near the endzone, and he pushes a throw up the field to Studarus while still leaning forward. The Furious defenders are both near Steets per their attempts to defend the pass that he caught. 7-5.
Furious calls offsides this time, and the Condors repull.. The Condors are playing junk, with a very loose cup for the first few points, then they transition to a more manny look. It's not full man, and Furious hucks low and into the endzone with no receiver nearby. It looks like a straight up mark, and the wind is still blowing. Cruikshank has a nice bid, but the Condors maintain control. A very low throw is pulled up off the ground, and the Condors are near an upwind goal, so time is called. The Condors work it up the field on mostly backhands on the West sideline, and Dugan hits Ian Ranahan to close out the point. There's a call back down the field as Furious stays on the field, but the call is negated and the score stands. 7-6, and the Condors regain the break they lost.
Furious brings it in with a brick off the OOB pull. Cruikshank starts with the disc. 1402 Furious starts out with a tight vertical stack, but then goes to their wider open offense. Grant pulls in a scuber, but is footblocked by Brian Bogle on a backhand. Husak hits the ground on a throw across the field, Furious picks up, it looks like there's a call as there's no motion on the field, and all of a sudden, Jeff Cruikshank hits Nichols going away in the endzone (25 yard pass), forehand. 8-6.
The Condors are spread across the field as Furious plays some more junk, maybe a 1-3-3. The Condors work it up to 20 yards out, Brandon Steets puts a nice backhand to Buchanan. 8-7.
Both teams have trouble keeping the pull in, as Furious starts out at the brick. A couple passes, and there's a great backhand to Roberts from Cruikshank to take half at 9-7.
Both teams are playing tired from a hard three days and some competitive games. There's some signs of this with the multiple turnover points. It's been a long tournament, and a long season, and these two teams are here because they've got the legs to keep it at a high level despite all comers. The wind helped separate the more well rounded teams from the rest, and the ability of both the Condors and Furious to play their games despite the weather, and to play consistently at this level (see number of finals), doesn't make this matchup a surprise.
The Condors haven't been hucking like they did yesterday, but the wind situation hasn't changed, and if anything, it may be a bit less gusty. The Furious D has the talent, and the Condors aren't underestimating this.
The game starts with the pull to the Condors. Steets drops an easy pass, and Furious can go up another break, but turn on a swing. But it isn't a swing. It's a stall. Nice Condor man on man defense. Brandon grabs the next one, pushes swings it over to the downwind side, but there's a call. The disc comes back to Steets, but I'm not sure why. I'd like to note here that the game is very clean. Both teams are putting it all into playing hard, and none into nit-picking. Steve Dugan catches a thirty yard pass as the Condors avoid a larger gap in points. 9-8, pulling upwind.
An inbounds pull, and a couple passes later Lugsdin throws it too far in front, the Condors pick the disc, and there's a long forehand from Husak to Taylor Cascino, and we've got a tie score. 9-9. It looks like the Condors have stepped up their man D a little, and the crows is happy to have a closer contest. This is a nice change from the woman's final.
A pull deep into the endzone, and Furious works it up the field. Grant makes an unbelievable play, as he goes out of bound on his first attempt at the misthrown sideline throw. He gets up, and the throw is still hanging. He comes back in, touches his feet inbounds, and extends his body out of bounds for a catch. 1407 and you can make the call. The disc, which had made it into the endzone, comes back to Grant with the confusion about the in/out status. Furious jams it in, but there's some confusion as a call is made, perhaps about a pick. The observers are consulted, and whatever is stopping the disc does so until a push pass from Evan Wood to Cruikshank gives Furious the lead back. 10-9.
The wind is picking up.
More Furious junk in a spread zone. Furious switches to person after a few passes, Steets has a nice backhand across the field, and it's Burfeind over two Furious players and a couple passes later, he puts it in to Adam Glimme. 1411. 10 10.
Furious is spread, with a couple players on each sideline, and a big huck while falling down from Cruikshank but there's no chance for Grant in the endzone. The Condors have the disc and the full field to go. After several short passes, the Condors try out their long game again, but a nice bid in the endzone doesn't complete. Furious works it half way up field and Grant throws a high arcing forehand and Mark Roberts gets a couple inches higher than his defender for the score.
The Condors turn over short, and Furious has the chance to re-widen to two. Some help D by the Condors leads to what looks to be an open Furious receiver in the endzone, but the forehand comes down too far away. The Condors start with three handlers in a horizontal stack, and four in another horizontal stack down the field. Lobue goes down after a throw gets caught by air and floats over him. His defender bids too early, and he goes back and grabs the disc just in time to receive a hit from his teammate. he goes down for a few seconds, and some injury subs are taken as Grant comes in for the D. ANOTHRE floating D misread by 5 people, and Burfeind is the only person to read correctly as he grabs it without jumping. Two floating forehands and the Condors are lucky. There may have been a foul in the scrum, however, as the throw goes back to the thrower of the hospital pass (Dugan). Another call, and we're moving in fits and starts. 1426. Brandon Steets goes up to bring down a mid-length cross field huck, and Dugan takes the short pass from Steets to a re-tie, 11-11.
A huck from the Condors after they burst from their tight stack to the spread, and the receiver misreads and comes in too far. Turn. The Condors come back with a huck, Cruikshank goes up on the bid for the D, but goes out for an injury sub after getting it. Actually, upon review of the photo, it looks like the throw was just too far. Furious is in their own endzone. Lugsdin. Grant. Someone else. Lugsdin. Grant. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Nichols to Alexander to Nichols and a few other non-Grant-Lugsdin receivers as everyone is working hard to come back and get the disc, especially the G-L combination. Nichols finishes to Grant on a backhand, and it's 12-11.
The Condors are in their own endzone. They work it out, with Lobue, but he throws under his receives coming to, and there's a semi-injury. It is brushed off, and Furious takes the time out.
It's fifteen minutes to cap, and we're only at 12-11, as both teams work hard for their scores. There's not much of the couple throw huck for a score that we saw so much of yesterday, and Furious has to be in some kind of crazy shape as they're depending upon a few people, while the Condors spread the disc, and the cutting out a bit. After the time, x throws it into the ground and the Condors have the disc back. Furious is giving very little as they stay close to their Ds, even on the weak side. A backhand sort of break goes into a crowd of four. There are a couple touches, but the disc hits the ground, and after a discussion with the observer we have a turn (the discussion is near the thrower). Grant is cutting in the middle of the field, there's a couple people running up and down the force side, the Condors are playing tough man D too, although with just a bit more poaching. Husak goes up and gets the D on a huck to Grant, Grant calls something, but the discussion calls negates the call (Grant choosing, although there may have been some contact on the first Husak attempt he makes two that might have limited Grant's bid). A couple of quick turns later, and the crowd is BOOING again. There's a short throw to Dugan, the Furious man gets in there, and the call is overturned. Furious has the disc to yards out. John Frame lays out towards the disc, may have it in his hands, gets some contact from his defender from behind, and there's another discussion. Furious still has the disc but back at the thrower, and some cutting later, Al Nichols takes the forehand from Evan Wood and keeps a clear head as he maintains his air until his feet come down in the endzone. 13-11 and cap will come in a couple of minutes. The Condors need to get a stop and convert now.
The Condors receive upwind on the break, and start working it down. Their offense is still a couple horizontal stacks, although they run it deeper than Furious does. THE CAP GOES ON, and Studarus sees Dugan open on the break mark 30 yards away and a smooth throw results in the score. 13-12.
Game to 15.
Furious is spread, and there's not a lot of motion behind the disc, as the iso down the field seems to be the intended target. Oscar Pottinger stops his deep cut, but Lugsdin doesn't predict this, and it's a deep throwaway. A swing across the field with the wind by the Condors, and Cruikshank picks up the disc to throw a quick backhand to Lugsdin. 14-12.
Game point Furious.
Husak and Lugsdin have a conversation, and head observer EK has come to the Tournament Director to see whether a short delay earlier in the game for the cameras to reset should delay the cap a bit. The crowd wants no cap, but the rules are set, and Furious pulls out of bounds. No surprise here.
Steets gets the disc after a couple passes, takes the dump, but there's a call. A couple of plays later, there's another cal. There's a few more throws, and Steets sees a hammer across the field near the endzone line. Four players converge, Namkung catches the disc OOB, but he, and many, think that he was forced out of bounds. Where he would have landed on his own is uncertain, however. The observers converge, and it's ruled out of bounds. A soft backhand and the Furious receiver is caught between two Condors.
A layout D. Dugan takes a 50 yard forehand down the field and both the offense and defense leave their feet for the low throw. It's a turn. Furious works it up the field, Studarus knocks the thrower down on the mar, a short stop, and play resumes. Several more Furious throws, and they're not taking chances, everything underneath. Al Nichols throws into the ground with NO pressure. Brandon Steets responds with a drop, but there's a call on the throw. Fatigue has set in, and almost all players are showing signs of weariness. The observers are brought in, and the Condors call stands. Another break mark throw, 1480, the observers discuss, and the call stands, I think. Studarus was the thrower. Steve Dugan has no cuts upfield, so he launches it, and the disc sails out of bounds, uncatchable. Furious has 55 meters to go. Despite calls of no huck, a big throw is let off by Michael Enns, and Ricky Melner is all alone as there's a mix up in Condors' deep defense, and James Studarus watches the deep throw score. There's a little help D, but not enough.
Santa Barbara gets the consolation prize of the bid to Worlds, but they'd get that anyway. It was a tough game throughout, and their fatigue resulted in some mis-throws near the end. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a rematch of this game there. Let's all hope so.
