So, Plan B goes to regionals! We were seeded 10th overall, top 4 go to
Nationals.

Saturday:
Game 1: Brass Monkey
Tough game! For those not in-the-know, BM is the defending national
champs...and the eventual tournament winner. We wanted to come out
strong, but had a lot of trouble with the pace of this game. Various
miscues typically went to the monkey's advantage and they took half 8-4
ish. They ran a few more off after half and we got a little negative.
We built up a bit of flame and scored a few more, but lost 15-7. New
local guy Pat Hard captains this team. Somebody sign him up for league.

Game 2: CTR
I don't know much about CTR or their history. I think they used to be a
contender for a bid to nationals out of our region, but I don't know if
they ever went. They've been around a while, but after seeing their
roster they've been rejuvenated with a couple former UW players and a
guy that played for Stanford during those years they were winning it
all. Whoop-de-doo. We came out strong and annihilated these cats.
Stout and Johnny B were skying deep over and over, and our defense was
creating turns and converting them. By the end of the game CTR was just
putting up throws and hoping they'd get caught...needless to say they
usually weren't. We win 15-5.

Game 3: Big
Big is the team out of the Alaska section, and nobody knew what to
expect. They hadn't faced any opponents during the season and so we
only had their previous loss to CTR by 1 point to go on. They had some
juniors kids with recognizable but nonmemorable names the roster that
seemed to drive a lot of the offense. It was a good tight game, but the
Big kids really pulled within themselves when it got tight at the end
and forgot to use the rest of their team. As we learned what they were
doing and where they were going, we pulled away at the end of what was a
tight game and won 15-12. John Bloch was fired up for this game, likely
since he was playing against some of his fellow juniors standouts.
Unfortunately for them, they got sat down by JB's repeated skies in the
endzone, including the game winner.

Game 4: Irish Wristwatch, crossover of B2 and C2
Yeah, say that 5 times fast. These are the remnants of Berzerkapiggy,
the pink team that has the pinatas at Potlatch. They've been on the
verge of beating some bigs teams in recent years, but never had
consistent enough results to really contend for A Bid. Due to those
results, they lost their big man Mike Somethingorother to the PDX team
Shotgun. They upset the 2 seed in their pool, Family Style, earlier in
the day. They had some good flow and players, and played a very smart,
calm, deliberate offense and gave us a game. We were in control of it
the whole way through though, and we coasted to a 15-11 win. Done for
the day, beating seed and winning our crossover.

Sunday:
Game 5: Flycoons
These guys are from Missoula, and have a lot of remnants from the old
Trigger Hippy team that won nationals a few times a few years ago,
before Donner Party started tearing it up. Some of us had played them
at Scorcher last year where we lost to them in pool play and the
finals. This was a pretty chippy match with a lot of calls. We went up
3 or 4 zip and then gave up a few, but took half 8-7. They came out
strong after half and scored maybe 3 in a row. We really need to watch
those changes in game intensity. Now 10-8 them, we traded to 14-12 us
receiving. Blah blah blah words words words I dropped the pull. Quick
break for a score and we lose. Tough break, especially given our early
lead, but also definitely a team to take it to next year if there's more
coed to be had. They're now the 4 seed from the NW to Nationals, and I
expect they'll do well.

Game 6: Family Style
This is a group of what appeared to be older players retired from
competitive open/womens teams. CJ was also playing for this team.
Given that they were upset by Irish Wristwatch (that's even hard to
type...), and their age, we thought we'd just outrun this team. This
was, by far, John Bloch's standout game. He was big all weekend, but he
was HUGE in this game. We took half 8-4 on a Callahan goal by John, and
he was deep all game, skying folks like World and National champion
Scott Conway over and over and over again. There was a guy with a
camera on the endzone line and I'm hoping he caught a few of them, but
JB was *unstoppable* in the air and endzone. After the 3rd or 4th
lesson in walking off the field humiliated, Conway took himself out of
the game, coming back in only to guard handlers. They gave us a run
after half but we had it in control, trading a few offensive points, but
winning 15-13 on D.

Game 7: Pocket Rockets
This was the 1 seed out of the typically strong WA/BC section (i.e.
Shazaam). We didn't know what to expect this game, but knew that they
would be good since they had to beat Shotgun to get to play us. I think
we opened up well, going up a couple. They took half with us close on
their heels. We made up a deficit of a break or two and are leading by
a break heading into the endgame. A turn by the offense and their
defense converting it ties it up, followed by offense trading with
14-14, then 15-15, then 16-16. We agree (per tournament rules) that
it's hardcap at 17, so it's double-game point, them receiving. We put
the best line in we can, but they get some clutch throws and catches,
and score on a bendy throw to the back of the endzone. It was a tough
but hard fought loss. Everybody played hard and it was a great, intense
game.

General Tournament results and comments:
We went in 10th and out 6th, losing in the game-to-go to the game-to-go
by 1 point. Pocket Rockets went on to get housed by the Flycoons in the
real game-to-go. Brass Monkey won the tourney, with Mischief the 2 seed
out, and from PDX Whore$hack the 3 seed out. The lower California teams
were horrible overseeded at the tournament, with Wagon at 5, Family
Style at 6, and CTR at 7. Only Family Style finished top 8, but I don't
those brackets were played out. That may have been irrelevant, but it's
an interesting sea change from the standard domination by Bay Area teams.

Overall it was an interesting month long season for Plan B. Shouts out
to the ladies for playing hard and punishing all the teams that went 4
women on us. Some teams would figure it out that our ladies were
ballers, and some wouldn't, but the results were typically the same.
Thanks so much to all of them for saving our season.

Here's why I call Dr. Tran "Dr. Tran"
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=yKSUt8yY7Q8), don't watch it with your kids
around. She's got a PhD in *kicking your ass*.

H