Masters write-up, Thursday

            Rumor has it that most of the Kegworkers of America’s squad arrived late last night, rolling into the hotel at 2 AM.  I’m not sure if this is true, but it would certainly explain today.  KWA came out extremely flat against 2002 champs Old Sag.  Not to detract from Sag’s performance-they are a strong team, with all of the usual suspects still going strong.  But KWA is a very deep team this year.  They’re hard to get a good hold of-since they don’t play or practice together regularly, they are a very hot-and-cold squad.  But the old Sockeye pride still flows strong in this team’s veins, and after Sag took the opener 15-11 they felt the need for some revenge. 

            Next up was defending national and world champs the Miami Refugees.  The Refugees have lost some players since last year’s run, and you have to figure that the ‘Worlds Hangover’ might be even more of a problem to overcome in Masters than in the club divisions.  The Refugees didn’t get much of a chance to warm up while beating overmatched Faded 15-6.  The Kegworkers, well, opened a keg on the Refugees in round 2.  Fueled by their athletecism and their nearly unstoppable deep game, KWA would take this matchup 15-6.  Perhaps the Refugees were taking KWA a bit lightly after easily defeating them last season, or perhaps this is a harbringer of things to come in Pool A.  Only time will tell.

            In the meantime, Ottowa’s GLUM pulled off a big upset, utilizing the height of Mike Hill and a multitude of throwers to take down 4th seed Grey Expectations 17-15.  They held seed over Faded in the second round, while Old Sag also sent Grey Expectations down to an 0-2 record.  The pool finished up to seed, although Refugees had to work pretty hard to beat Grey Expectations 15-12.

            The big game in Pool A tomorrow is going to be first thing, Refugees vs. Old Sag.  Sag wants to prove that their win over Kegworkers wasn’t a fluke-if they win they can expect to finish the pool undefeated and have a pretty easy road into semis.  The Refugees probably can’t hope to salvage any better than third in the pool given their bad loss to KWA, but at least they can help keep Old Sag from walking away with the pool.

            In Pool B, nearly everything went to seed.  The only upset of the first two rounds was 7 over 6 as HOSS used Andrew Zeldin’s height and athleticism and Troy Buggle’s throws to take down Above and Beyond.  Long Playing and Big Unit had a pretty good game which the South’s Unit took 15-12.  Unit is one of those ‘what if’ teams from about 6 or 8 years ago.  Stu Downs is featuring a little more of a belly than he once had, but he still gets up and catches nearly everything, and Rex O’Quinn doesn’t move quite as fast as he used to, but he’ll still throw almost anything, so it’s always excitement when the two of them are on the field together.

            Old and In the Way looked to be the team to beat after two rounds.  They’re still showing a bit of a hangover after last year’s hotly contested defeat in the finals-a few travel calls made by HOSS in the second round really upset some of their players and had them calling for Observers.  But they are a strong team, well-conditioned in the thin air of 5300 feet above sea level and who play pretty well together.  They had a good summer, including playing in Denver’s Colorado Cup against some top Open division competition.  Still the usual suspects-Bob Pease, Jim Glynn, Randy Ricks and the rest, although former Condor Taro Ramberg is certainly a strong addition.  They came out strong against KAVU, who had walked through their first two games 15-5 over Big Unit and 15-7 over Above and Beyond.  Old took a 3-0 lead, and 5-2.

            But KAVU is a tough team.  There’s something in the water up there in Ketchum, ID.  Mike O’Dowd and Trent Stumph would be strong players in the Open division, and they dominate in the Masters field.  Trent’s backhand, in particular, is quite a thing of beauty-you only need about half a step on your defender going deep and he’ll get it to you.  And they would not fold against Old, putting together lots of small 2- and 3-point runs and finishing off Old 15-11. 

            It certainly seems like Old and KAVU are a step above the competition in this pool, with HOSS next and Big Unit probably in 4th.  So barring any big upsets, tomorrow’s pool play games are probably not as important as in the A pool.  More tomorrow once we have Saturday’s matchups figured out.

-David Samuels