We woke up at the same hotel many of us have been in a dozen times to tweets from our 8:30 opponents such as

"Goat's facial expression after their first round upset. #goatmilk #pridecock #ridesrock #MILKEM @GOATultimate pic.twitter.com/I7ipmgwWLX" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We think the goat in the picture is supposed to be sad, but I think it did accurately express our look at 7am. But as everyone knows, Twitter is important. So if you are going to pick a fight on it you should be ready for the repercussions. In this case the repercussions are no mention of the game at all.

 

Next up was Mephisto from Montreal. With an ex-GOAT player/coach of Shaggy  on the team it is always a fun matchup - one we haven't had as much but in the past would play them I think on average 1000 times in a season. I believe that is an exact number.  We won 15-5 but it felt like they played a much better game than that. 

 

Ahhh Dark or Light next. Memories of an almost knock out or a trip to Sarasota last year were not forgotten. Had we thought of it earlier they also might have received an onslaught of tweets. #pickaside #lightsout #evilneverwins #kindoflikeyourlogobuttakethatnegatively. Unfortunately for Dark or Light, improving our zone offense was perhaps our main focus on the year and has improved so that we don't see teams holding their zones the same way they used to. You could also say that we have only played 1 windy game all year and any top team can break a zone in calm conditions, but we're pretty sure it's us. Still - DoL have some big guys. We noticed early though that a few those guys would play on defense and then go play right again on offense. At one point one of our players came off and said "I had their primary reset on me, so on O I just ran around in circles... he didn't really run with me but I think it was pretty sweet" And hey - the next point the pull was caught and the first pass was to that player and it went away from him and we got the break to take the lead. After a couple breaks Dark or Light seemed to feel like they had to take some risks to come back into the game. However with a clean offense from GOAT, it wasn't going to happen today. Great game from DoL though, 15-9 again seemed like a lot more than it really was.

 

Only note about the night, a pumpkin beer "with the rim" means they put cinnamon sugar on the rim. It's better than "without the rim".

 

Next up was Ironside at 10:30 am. Ultiworld's writeup is here: http://ultiworld.com/2013/09/30/goat-takes-first-ever-northeast-regional-title-brilliant-performance-ironside/ but here is ours:

 

The game started with Lloyd flipping and winning the flip so we were dark. Then Lloyd received the pull and flipped it to Lloyd. Lloyd then hucked it to Lloyd and then flipped it into the endzone - where someone else dropped it. Then Lloyd got the D. Lloyd hucked it again but someone else dropped it again. Then they scored, it looked close but the observer - Lloyd - called it in, which was the correct call. Before the next point Lloyd called a new play - but Lloyd thought we should do another play instead so he suggested that and Lloyd agreed. It was a good idea, and Lloyd hucked to Lloyd to tie the game.  At 8'5" a huck to Lloyd is often a good choice. 

 

Ok, but really we did start the game with a couple drops and a break - the only break on our O line for the game.  Interestingly Ironside probably should have gotten 3-4 breaks in the game, but the one they actually did get was off a pair of GOAT drops in the endzone. Sports can be funny that way sometimes. On the other side though, GOAT defense got the disc on the endzone twice and couldn't convert either. Multiple turns both ways, and a generally sloppy game so far from both teams, half comes with 1 break a piece and GOAT starting on D up 8-7.  

 

The second half came as expected. Tighter defense on both sides. For GOAT, while it may have forced more throws per point, the ability for Derek and Lloyd to get open with constant high percentage throws kept us from panicking. We didn't necessarily get up the field quickly, but neither of those 2 looked to be tiring either. In Davis - Ironside looked to poach a lot to try to prevent things, but that allowed us to work it up the field much quicker to open receivers. Here it looked like they really wanted to play man and stop us 1 on 1, which seemed to slow us from working up the field but not necessarily generating turnovers.  It is one of those funny games where Ironside and GOAT might come away with the exact same adjustment  to better improve their own team the next time we play: "We have to prevent Lloyd and Derek from only playing catch with each other".  

 

Last year I thought GOAT played the better game and Ironside came out with the win. This year I thought perhaps Ironside played the better game but GOAT took it. Tight games, unexpected results, down to the last play games aren't anything new  Northeast regionals, but GOAT winning it is. Here's a fitting image for that: