USAU College Season - Game 1

Wednesday 2/2 found us making our way out to Palmyra for the first game of Winter League and the first regular season game of the year. We knew going in that this would be a battle as Dickinson is always amped up to play us and they are a tough squad, particularly when Gutter is on his game. We came out slow and they came out strong so we fell behind 3-0 early before settling ourselves and getting on the board. The rest of the first half was hard fought - they were getting some lucky breaks with their hucks and we were scoring on tough offensive positions. After getting a break back late in the half, we went into a quick half time down 9-7. After working the disc upfield out of half we gave up a goal line turn and Dickinson quickly capitalized to go up 10-7. With just 20 minutes left in the game we started to battle back and started to have things fall our way. We started to get huge on D which caused them to start over playing some discs and just getting flat out beat on others. Our handler D really stepped it up as well, causing them to make mistakes with us right in their faces. We mixed in straight up man, clam and a six man cup with one person manning up on Jake which threw them off considerably. After getting it to 11-10 we were down to the final point as time was expiring. We once again stepped up our defense and finally were able to punch it in on D to force a universe point. We came out with the cup again and forced an early turn which we were able to capitalize into a goal and a victory! It was a tough game to start the season however we really showed that we have the heart to fight back even if we are not at our best initially. There were standouts throughout the game, particularly on defense, with Willie, Ryan, Jeff and Kurt stepping up on the handlers while the trio of Eric, Sully and Justin all wore down Jake deep. Overall it was a solid start to the 2011 USA Ultimate College Season!