2022 Week 10

CUDL 2022 WEEK 10

Henry Rummel - 7.26.22

First Impressions

"Today it begins. Six enter, one leaves as Champion. May the best team win."

- Aidan McCoy, Golden Scoobers TC

Well, week ten was interesting.

Four teams faced off Friday night: The Landsharks and The Wind; and The Golden Scoobers and Green Eggs and Hammers.

Two teams advanced; two teams are eliminated.

And yes, double overtime was involved.

What happened?

The Golden Scoobers must be frustrated. They officially ended their regular season 1-8, scoring only 9.56 goals per game, while giving up almost 17. They went into the playoffs desperately needing the results that eluded them in the regular season.

Unfortunately, The Golden Scoobers couldn't find their results.

Green, however, has found their stride. They haven't lost in five weeks, their official record 6-4. They continued that streak into week ten with a 17-6 trouncing of the Scoobers. This brings up an interesting topic: Yellow has scored a total of 12 points against Green across three matches. In just those games, Green has scored 49 points. That means that on average, Green scores a little over 4 points for every 1 point that Yellow scores- when they play each other.

However, this doesn't hold true for any other team. Overall, Green only scores 1.3 points for every 1 of Yellow's. HammerTime, host to the most effective offense in the league, only scores 1.6 goals for every 1 Yellow point, a difference of only six points per game. Further, the Green Eggs have the second-to-least-effective offense in the league, yet still are able to pull off huge wins to which no other team has been able to compare.

Multiple theories have been proclaimed. Let me attempt my own.

The Golden scoobers have the potential to be one of the most elite offensive teams in the League. When they score, they score quickly and well. On average, the Scoobers' points have lasted only about a minute each. They play exceptionally well when they play well. However, their incredibly offensively-inclined roster also creates the least effective defense in the league. By far.

The result: any error, turnover, foul, or interception gives their opponent a high probability of converting- and almost every error, turnover, foul, and interception is converted. The Scoobers' offense is too easily broken- that's why they're not winning. Their offense is good- very good. But their defense isn't letting their offensive shine. They have one more game this season, against the Purple Landsharks. The Landsharks have the second worst defense in the League, so a high-scoring match is promised. The scoobers are 0-2 against the Landsharks, but both games have been very close. This match should be a very good one.

Meanwhile, fifth seed Landsharks faced off against fourth seed Wind. The only other matchup between the two teams had ended in a tie.

From the beginning, it looked like the Wind would walk away with the victory without a second thought. The Landsharks scored the first point, but then The Wind scored the next six. The Landsharks scored their only other point of the quarter with a few seconds remaining.

However, the Landsharks rallied, playing one of the best defensive games of their entire season. The Landsharks went on to score seven points in the next three quarters while holding the under- Gray to a mere three.

And then the game ended, with a goalline block by the Landsharks.

Wind won the coin toss for overtime and chose to receive. They scored, after running 1.27 off the clock. Purple received with 33 seconds to go, ran it to the endzone, and dropped it. However, Gray was handblocked on the goalline with 2 seconds left. The disc was picked up and thrown.

And caught.

And double-overtime began.

Double-overtime is sudden-death: first score wins. Gray received, and worked the disc beautifully to the twenty-yard line. There, the disc was caught out-of-bounds. This stopped play, as some players still thought the disc was in. The referees declared the disc in bounds, and two quick throws ended the game. Should we have been a little more careful? Perhaps. But what's done is done, and there's no point in lamenting what could have been. The Wind will play the Turtles next week in what promises to be a fantastic butting of heads between two elite teams. I'll be reffing a different game, unfortunately.

Final Buzzer

Two teams eliminated. Four advancing. Week eleven holds the Semi-finals, the determiner of the CUDL 2022 championship match. The Landsharks and Scoobers are eliminated, but HammerTime, the Turtles, Green Eggs, and The Wind play on. What a season this has been. It's amazing to me that only two weeks remain in the CUDL's second year.

I'm excited. Excited to see what week eleven brings to the table. Excited for the champion to be crowned. Excited for my nap at the end. But most of all, I am excited for good, God-honoring play. And what better way to play than to play Ultimate?

Play on, friends.