The Ultimate team had a great “games day” at NMH on Saturday, April 22. The set of 3 games was a nice way for us to practice for upcoming tournaments. Kass Gifford and Captain Jerry Huang shone in all three games, with Kass as a standout for speed and goals/assists, and Jerry for fine-tuned catching and pass placement. Our first game, against North Hampton High School, was just short of grueling. Five members of our team did not attend the play day, and we had few subs. Highlights of this incredibly athletic game included Kass’s blurr of a sprint to catch a beautiful deep throw and then toss it to Captain Forrest Gao for our third goal. Also energizing was a moment in which NHS dropped the disk near our end zone and Jerry quickly made an easy pass to Kass for goal #4. The second half was tougher, as NHS had a bank of fresh subs, but Forrest kept good pressure in the cup to cause turnovers, and Alejandro Simon had an impressive catch after an opponent knocked the disk downwards but did not follow through.
Our second game was the “Oh my days!” game against Andover, so named because Forrest said, “Oh my days!” on multiple occasions during and after the game. PA put together a mixed gender team to play our already-mixed gender team, and we had a lot of fun. Kass kicked off the game with a Callahan (a Callahan is a rare move/opportunity in which the defending team intercepts the disk in its own end zone to score a surprise point). The crowd went wild! Standouts in this game included Forrest for two amazing “elasti-guy” layout catches and Alice Ai’s great pressure D. We also had greater variety of score-producing plays than in the first game, with Alejandro, Elena Tskhvitaria, Sunshine Chen, Forrest, and Alice joining Kass and Jerry in those end zone plays.
The final game of the day, against NMH, was the most fun and spirited of all. This game will be remembered as the “Skittle-Hammer” game for the brightly attired opposing players and the sheer number of hammers thrown during the game. In this game, Kass skied an opponent (twice!) who was about a foot taller than he is (a “sky” is a move in which two players jump for the disk, but one player gets it because they jump a good distance higher than their opponent). Lily Lin had an awesome goal when Kass tossed the disk over his shoulder (!) and she caught it; Lily and Elena were in open space 98% of the time; Alejandro ran a great offense for two of our points; Vivian Gonzalez proved her mettle by bringing water out to the field for every thirsty player, and Sarah Sookoo did an excellent job, as always, keeping stats and managing the team. Members of both teams had terrific spirit and positive energy. Good sportsmanship and camaraderie were the dominant themes of this game. Go D.A.!
Results:
vs. Northampton: Lost 5-13
vs. Philips Andover: Won 13-4
vs. NMH: Lost 8-13