SpW5: The Funeral vs. Good Guys

Week Five – Wednesday – East River Park

The Funeral has rolled over early season competition, and after a befuddling slip up with BYOB, they find themselves 12-1. While The Funeral was at the peak of their powers Good Guys’ Captain Frazer was known to estimate that only his team could defeat The Funeral. It is a moot point now; however, the claim was made. Game of the Week^TM was on the sidelines to tell the story.

At 6:23 Frazer was stalling for his women.
At 6:25 Captains flip. #J9 couldn’t say who won.
At 6:30 teams huddled up.

In the Good Guys’ huddle, Frazer asks… “Who’s our captain?” Teams discuss strategy. Good Guys are having fun.

First half: The Funeral pulls. Jeff Ng picks up. A little back and forth handler action. The Funeral plays a clammy zone; Craig Barowsky throws a turnover. Devin Horne (The Funeral) has a wide open up line throw to Funeral Director Mateo Mead for the score, 1-0. Pull by the Funeral, a few Good Guy throws, Brian Rossi takes the deep shot to Ng. It’s tipped by Mateo, Jeff bobbles… can’t hold on. The Funeral, looking to widen their lead, quickly pick up near the goal line. Mateo blows a swing hammer. Turnover. This should be easy for Good Guys. Frazer IOs a backhand to Ng (now that’s co-captains!) for the score. Tie game, 1-1. Good Guys call time out.

Lexi Zalk has shown up, she needs time to cleat up. Frazer declares it’s now a fair game as Good Guys have 2 women and can legally field a full line. Inside The Funeral huddle, Mateo calls my bad. Inside the Good Guys huddle there is a discussion of zone. 

Good Guys pull and rush down the field to set up a surprising clam defense. Funeral struggles to adapt. Amadeo Lasansky gets a quick poach D out of the short middle. Frazer catches the score. 1-2 Good Guys. On the next point, Lexi gets a tip D on the dump to #J9. Good Guys handler action, big throw to the end zone. Horne tips it, but Dan Seto makes the catch, 1-3 Good Guys. Big pull for the Good Guys. Man defense, big throw to Horne, drop. Big throw for Good Guys, Lexi can’t make the catch. The Funeral has some handler action until Alan Knox puts up a big throw. Seto steps in with the D! Karina Ray gets the D right back, and The Funeral, again on their own goal line work it around, patient now with the disc. Line throw to Knox who milks it to the end zone, 2-3. Good Guys still in the lead. Funeral pulls to a patient Good Guy Offense. Turnover on an errant throw. The Funeral give it back. Good Guys throw it to Mateo. Lexi gets a step up D. Good Guys throw to the end zone, and again Mateo will not let it happen. The Funeral with the disc, quick work up the field. Mateo to Sean Petterson, 3-3. Frazer picks up The Funeral’s pull, quick throw to Chris Ward. Back to Frazer, big throw to Lexi with a nice throw to space LoLo who catches the score, 3-4 Good Guys. Back in the lead. Funeral disc, errant throw by Reynaldo Punzalan. Turnover. Patient GG offense. Drop. #J9 picks up for The Funeral and throws up the line to Gabe Finkelstein for the score, 4-4. Funeral pulls. Jeff Ng picks up, he’s trapped in the end zone. Big throw that Amadeo can’t bring in. Petterson hucks a turnover. Frazer throws big and Chris Ward can’t make the catch. Knox hammer to Finkelstein for the score. That’s 2 in a row for Gabe, 5-4 The Funeral. They pull. Good Guys, bad decision turn over. Steve Carpenter to Ruben Land, 6-4 The Funeral. The ensuing pull drifts out of bounds. Jeff Ng, from the brick, puts a big throw up to Frazer who throws a 5-yd forehand turnover. Matt Olsen gets a D. Good Guys turn it over again. Punzalan hits Sandy Schaffa for the score, 7-4. The Funeral. They are running away with this. Jeff Ng picks up the pull, patient work to half field, big shot to Seto, Oh! he can’t make the catch. Funeral, on their own goal line, patiently find each other up the field. Chris Clark, with a Colt .45 forehand, can’t connect to Schaffa, turnover. Good Guys take a big shot to Frazer who makes the catch. Good Guys now two-thirds of the way up the field, patiently move the disc between the handlers. Line flick to Seto with the big grab for the score, 7-5. Good Guys aren’t out of this yet. Ruben Land jacks a forehand out the back of the end zone. Good Guys on their own goal line. Patience, miscommunication, turnover. Ryan Hamill gets a D on Ruben, but Ward can’t hold on to the next throw. Unreal. Funeral with the disc 15 yards out, very deep stack. Knox cuts in for the catch and turns for the line throw to Horne. Score. That’s half. The Funeral lead 8-5.

Halftime: It’s a real campfire circle in the Good Guys’ huddle. Frazer wants to simplify the game. He sees his team making drops and is interpreting this as a lack of focus. He wants to win the 50/50 battle catches. Mateo tells The Funeral they are a team of monsters and they can all play big. “Everyone is killing it…bringing the pressure.” Mateo pumps up The Funeral.

Second half: Good Guys pull. Funeral works the disc. Seto with the D at half field. Then he gets the grab on huck that’s misread by Horne. Quick throw to Barowsky for the score. 8-6, The Funeral. Pull. The Funeral works to half field and Ruben overthrows Sandy Schaffa. Good Guys’ disc and Ruben gets a D. Funeral’s disc and Frazer gets a D. Frazer to Seto, half field hammer. “That was amazing,” exclaims Chris Ward. 8-7, Good Guys are catching up. Schaffa to Knox to Owen Simpson for the big forehand to Knox for The Funeral’s first point of the second half. Score is 9-7. On his line, Frazer recognizes a threatening defense posed by The Funeral and is determined to beat it. The Funeral pulls a low one and the Good Guys drop it at half field. Karina Ray gets The Funeral score on a throw from Simpson, 10-7. The Funeral brings out their Zone defense; there is no wind. Good Guys recognize. Hammer to Olsen in the flat. Dump to handlers, around to Frazer. Again hammer to Olsen. Working it horizontally now, Amadeo makes a catch inches out, dump swing to find Olsen for the score, 10-8. The Funeral hold the lead. Good Guys pull OB, they set up their zone defense, still no wind. Funeral recognizes. Lexi swoops in from the force side wing for D on a swing. She gambled big and won. Frazer picks up. Dump to Amadeo, up line throw to Ward, for another Good Guys score, 10-9. Good Guys pull and once again bring the zone, The Funeral recognizes, Frazer gets a tip D. “Frazer playing like an animal!” screams Barowsky. Ward puts a big gentle back hand to Jeff Ng. Score: 10-10. Good Guys pull and zone. The Funeral beats it. Horne scores, 11-10. The Funeral pulls and traps the Good Guys in their end zone, a little throwing around. Good Guys throw it away to half field. The Funeral with disc. Punzalan to Knox, 12-10. The Funeral regain their edge. Big pull from Carpenter. A few throws into the point, Steve gets the D. Throw to Ruben. Disc bounces off Ruben’s chest. Turnover. Big throw to Barowsky with the catch. Timeout two-thirds up the field.

Everyone needs a breather. Chris Ward brings water to the Good Guys. Carpenter’s 2-year-old son brings it to The Funeral. Frazer has a plan. Ward tells a story about an earlier zone point when Mateo said, “We could do this all day!” and then promptly turned it over.

Disc is in. Barowsky dishes to Frazer. Line throw to a perfectly-timed cut by LoLo. 12-11 The Funeral. Jacques Couvilon is getting excited as the Good Guys are again within 1. They’ll need 2 breaks to win this game. Good Guys come zone. The Funeral work. Eventual #J9hammer to Horne for the score, 13-11. That point took a lot out of Good Guys, who need a score. They send out a line to do it Barowsky is itching to play sky ball and Ward hasn’t fired his forehand rifle all night. Short of half field, Barowsky gets too much deep respect from Petterson and is open for every under cut, three catches in a row. Frazer to Barowsky and back and forth until Good Guys are 3/4 up field. Good Guys in red zone, Barowsky with disc. Dish to Frazer, bender to Jeff, score. They still trail by 1, 13-12. Good Guys show person D. Funeral is open for everything. Big throw to Knox, but it’s OB. Good Guys have a few looks: throwaway. The Funeral with the disc now. Throw again bounces of Ruben’s chest. This time he makes the catch. Knox puts a weird IO to Ruben for the score, 14-12. We are in cap time, but the score negates it. The Funeral pull sails onto the barrier track, Frazer takes the disc to a generous brick mark. Lefty forehand to Lexi. 6 seconds later, Frazer lays out for dump catch, keeping the possession alive. Olsen puts an up-line IO to Frazer, but as the disc bends the wrong way, Frazer can’t get there, and the disc, along with Good Guys hopes, falls dead at half field. Knox blades it to Ruben for the W. Final score 15-12.

The teams line up for hi fives. Quite a game. Good Guys think they beat themselves and that they’re the better team. The Funeral discusses favorite plays and great dump Ds. The Funeral cheer, “Good Guys!” Good Guys cheer, “Funeral: you’re dead to us,” but it was inaudible. An undisclosed source close to Good Guy leadership said, “That cheer sounded as yucky as our end zone offense.”

Post Game Thoughts: Good Guys’ Lexi and LoLo played the entire game, and were still coming up with plays until the end, an impressive performance. The Funeral looked confident throughout, and quickly adjusted when strategies were ineffective, Good Guys weren’t able to adjust as quickly.

HERE’S WHAT I DON’T GET: The Good Guys inability to adapt to The Funeral’s defense. While the deep game may work on some of the lower teams in the league, and it did keep them in this game, it didn’t win this game. The big throws forced Good Guys into battles over 50/50 discs, which they had difficulty winning. Frazer noted at halftime that Good Guys would have to win these battles in the second half. One way to win 50/50 discs, is to not make the throws that lead to these situations. If Good Guys had been able to favor a shorter game for greater portions of the field, they may have found more success, and even a W.

At midseason, The Funeral’s place at #1 is a foregone conclusion. Good Guys have had success all season against teams that aren’t The Funeral and after tonight’s game, Frazer was overheard making plans to be in 2nd place come playoffs. With BYOB’s recently upsetting behavior, and Nader’s Raiders counting their wins, can Good Guys even hold on to the number 2 spot until seasons end?