Sectionals

Another great season of Ghetto Force ultimate has come to an end.  Hucks were thrown, layout D's were had, and many a sky hath occurred.  It was a very odd season, but a fun one nonetheless.  And as with most spring seasons, it ended with the Sectional and Regional tournaments.

Before we get to that, I would like to take a moment to briefly introduce myself.  As mentioned in the previous blog post, our beloved Trap Wizard, Jamie Horne, will be graduating in the next few days which means he will no longer be able to update the blog.  So, for reasons unknown, he decided to tap me to be the next blogger.  For those who don't know me, my name is Conner Haenszel, I am a handler on Ghetto, and I'll be a junior this fall.  Although I'm not sure why I was chosen, I know better than to question the wisdom of the almighty Trap Wizard.  I am humbled and honored to follow in his path.  Its my first time maintaining a blog of any kind, so please bear with me.  It should only get better from here. 

Now, onto the tournaments.  First was the Ohio D-1 Conference Championship, a.k.a sectionals, which took place in Columbus, Ohio.  Day 1 went very well for Ghetto Force.  We opened the day with a highly competitive match against Ohio University.  With OU coming off a nationals appearance last year, we knew we were in for a good game.  We came out guns blazing and opened the game with a streak of quick scores going up 4-1 on OU.  Then, as quickly as we went up, we came back down. I'm not entirely sure of what happened because thing were moving at a blinding pace, but next thing you know OU takes half 5-6 (games were to 11 on Day 1) and eventually took the win 8-11.  It was a hard fought bout, but we fell short.  Blind with rage from the close loss, we proceeded to bagel Youngstown State 11-0.  Poor guys never stood a chance.  

Our game plan after the OU game

This fury would carry over into games 3 and 4 against Miami U and Kent State.  Much like YSU, Miami and KSU found themselves helplessly outmatched against the our impenetrable zone and lightning fast offense.  We tasted victory twice more winning 11-5 and 11-2 against Miami and KSU respectively. 

Day 2 started with a hot matchup between Ghetto Force and Ohio State Leadbelly.  Day 2 was significantly windier than Day 1, with gusts staying around 20-25mph all day.  That being said, Day 2 was very zoney.

what sunday felt like at times

Our game against OSU started with back to back upwind breaks by both teams, so it looked like the makings of a close game.  However, Leadbelly proceeded to crash our cup with the power and ferocity of a thousand Prussian armies, allowing them to successfully march upwind. We fell (valiantly) 5-11.  Much like Day 1, we entered our second game of the day blind with rage and facing a much weaker opponent in Cleveland State.  Ghetto was able to will their way to a victory, just barely, winning 11-5 in a rather quick game.  At this point, something interesting happened.  We heard word that OhioU was in a very close game with Miami.  We went over just in time to see Miami force a turnover and score on universe.  This would have been really important, but we learned soon after that Miami lost to Kent State earlier in the tournament and this stunning turn of events would not end up helping us.  By this point we had secured a bid to regionals, but still had bracket games to play.  

The first was against crosstown rival Wright State.  The game began with Ghetto taking the first point, but immediately after there were some complaints about the beautiful array of color present on the jersey's of Ghettos D-line.  Patrick "Always Calm" Kaufmann engaged in a civil, scholarly discussion with the entire Airstrike team about how "f***ing stupid" it was that Airstrike's light uniforms were actually a dandelion yellow.  Both sides presented very compelling arguments with valid points and unique perspectives. We ended up having to switch to white (minus Peaches).

the sideline's reaction to most arguments made by Peaches

After that Ghetto proceeded to... how do I put this... deliver the People's Elbow to the sternum of Airstrike.  We delivered a payload of deep cut after deep cut downwind and were able to come down with most of them.  Ghetto prevailed in a decisive victory.  

Ghetto Force vs. Airstrike

We moved on to a 4th place game against 1st seeded Cincinnati.  Both teams were exhausted at this point and seemed somewhat content with going to regionals.  Cincy took half 5-8.  After half Ghetto decided that now was not the time to quit.  We were tired, but not tired enough.  Ghetto came out of half with 2 upwind breaks and eventually tied the game 14-14 with a universe point going upwind.  Unfortunately, we were unable to force a turn.  And like all great things, Ghetto's weekend came to an end.  Ghetto ended up taking 5th place at the tournament which is about where we expected, we broke seed by 1 place.  Overall it was a good weekend for Ghetto. We were able to drive back to Dayton with smiles on our faces, happiness in our hearts, and Mixteca on our minds.

mmm tacos

On to regionals....