Nats recap

Borrowed largely from WarTank:

In the firebird game, down a couple of breaks before half, GT takes a timeout and Smolak gives a classic speech. To paraphrase, he said "your coaches and captains come to tournaments like this with a limited handful of stirring and motivating speeches. I can't f**k**g believe we are about to waste one on firebird."

Half an hour later, we waste yet another speech on firebird.

15-20 minutes after that, we go on a 5-1 scoring run to win on universe point. Early on, Warren sent a 40 yard zippy backhand huck down the line to wide open ekers. We tie the game up later, and i screamed so hard i swear i burst a blood vessel in my brain. I had to sit back down while the team celebrated, while my white blood cells took care up business upstairs. For the final score, Peyton fires off a beauty backhand put that settles into the endzone for a streaking cam malcolm, we're already celebrating on the sidelines when a firebird convict piggyback sodomizes cam for the no-catch-foul-no-contest in the endzone. An easy flip from there to Kieran (?) for the final score. 13-12

The firebird guys, while disappointed, took it as a major positive for the rest of the weekend. Afterall, they came a lot closer to beating us than Phoenix did on either of their two attempts.

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Rest of the day was just as nail-biting. Up 8-2 at half against blackfish, we almost gave the game away in the 2nd half, chucking out turnovers like they were turds while they sharpened up their game. 13-11 (after a 8-2 start!?!?!?!)

Day finished with a close start against Mephisto, but couldn't keep the nerves out and our turnovers lead to efficient Mephisto scores. A disappointing way to end the day, one in which we may have been lucky (or just slightly too good) to come out 2-1 instead of 0-3. 5-15

It was a rough day. We definitely had some belly fires to ignite and some gelling to develop.

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Stomping Roy on the friday morning game set the stage for a dominating day. They were shorthanded as well, but we crushed their spirit right away. Efficient offence that we hadn't been able to achieve at all in '06, and stifling defence that caused countless turnovers when they had to play the disc on their own cone. Peyton had a callahan, i believe? (Actually Smolak, playing on the D line?!?). 15-2

Followed that game up with a strong game against magma. Some bickering but honestly, who can take them seriously with their porn staches and silly accents? The fucked up thing was that one of their guys was featured in the half-page sports section picture in the Halifax newspaper, mouth agape like he was hunting for p3nis. As a mephisto guy later proved, he was a spitting image for Ben Stiller in Dodgeball. Just the hippy reinforcement our sport needs. We crushed them in this game for just that. I think i spent most of the game thinking about poutine. 12-7

Finished off the day by gutting out a win over Phoenix. In two moments that nigel mentioned -- Arjun dominated one of their handlers on D while he made squirrelly cuts all over. The bail pass finally goes up and arjun is all over it. he gets called for a "your defence is too good for me" foul. Arj spends the rest of the game fired up and sitting in this guy's shorts right next to his left testicle. The guy can barely get involved for the rest of the game and GT is fired up.

Then, their hearts must have just collapsed when they saw The Ficko Layout. Ficko was on the call for a kermit, just as he takes off a pick is called. he stops. bird lets fly. ficko sprints a 4.1 40 to layout grab to save the possession. Two Roy players on the sidelines orgasm and cream their pants.

Smolak told us that after we beat them at No Borders (?) they wouldn't beat us again. We were fired up and took it to them. GT was on a f**k**g roll. 12-9

Nobody remembered (or cared) about our offensive efficiency in the Roy game, but I seem to remember that the O-line scored on all but one possesion in the final two games. D-line did their job by pitching in with some stops, so Magma and Phoenix went home to lick their fiery wounds.

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Magma had some heat left for the saturday quarters, but there was no way we'd let them win. Things were a little sloppy, but we gutted out the win. On to mephisto. 10-7

A strong start has the defence applying good pressure and Warren striking twice on bombs from smolak and bird to keep the game tight in the early going. Then warren goes on to his statistically worst game of '06, being a part of 6 or 7 turnovers. I know that at least some of those weren't my fault, but it was simply too many to be coincidental. Wartank chokes in a big way, the fire is there but we can't maintain our efficiency as high as theirs, and they cruise to a very intense and hard-fought but mathematically safe win. Somewhere in and around this, warren goes on a screaming profanity-fest and parents hide their children from the scary minority who knows kung-fu. later, feeling remorse for the frightened children (and maybe the game too), he wants to cry.

3 hours later, after some moping, team napping, recollection, Phoenix eats the fired-up and efficient fist of Grand Trunk. Bronze for the good guys. 13-11 after being up 11-7

Other highlights:

• Steve "Showboat" Tam pulling down some stupidly ridiculous catches in traffic
• Lowell using a full DUNK to D on a huck
• Carnes' beautiful floaty pulls
• Peyton screaming after winning a joust in our endzone against Mephisto
• Mike Lane calling the handler strike for a goal against Phoenix

Pictures to follow