Ironside Survives Scare, Locks Up One Seed At Club Championships

October 8, 2012 by Charlie Eisenhood in Featured, News, Recap with 23 Comments

It wasn’t exactly pretty, but Boston’s Ironside did what they came to do at the Northeast Regionals, winning the tournament and ensuring they will get the top seed at the USA Ultimate Club Championships later this month.

In an up-and-down, classic finals game, Ironside took down Toronto’s GOAT 16-14 with a big comeback finish that will be remembered for a pivotal foul call that snatched the game out of GOAT’s hands.

The story of this game can be told in three parts: the first half, the second half before the foul call, and the meltdown.

It was all Ironside early. Their offense was running on all cylinders in the first half, easily scoring against GOAT’s defense and looking like the strong team we’ve seen all season. Their offense didn’t have a single turnover in the first half.

GOAT would keep it close, despite a handful of offensive line turnovers, until 3-2, when their offense had four chances to score but couldn’t punch it in. Ironside got the first break of the game to go ahead by two. They would tack on a second after a big endzone D by Jamie Quella to take command up 5-2.

GOAT’s offense settled down after that and both sides traded turnover-free points into half with a confident Ironside leading 8-5.

What looked to be yet another easy win for Ironside changed dramatically in the second half. GOAT came out on offense and put up a big huck to playmaker Jeff Lindquist for a score. GOAT’s defense then got a break back after a huge layout D from Geoff Powell handed Ironside’s offense their first turnover.

Ironside worked it smoothly down the field on the next point, but a lazy high release backhand got blocked by Adrian Yearwood right at the goal line and GOAT would take advantage to tie the game at eights.

After a sloppy Ironside turnover, a high stall floaty backhand into the endzone stack would bounce around before Inian Moorthy reeled it in to give GOAT their first lead of the game.

GOAT would make it five in a row after another poor Ironside turnover to take the 10-8 lead.

Frustrated, Ironside put out a defensive unit for the next offensive point. The move paid off and they stopped the bleeding to stay within one.

The sides then traded points, punctuated by a huge Lindquist endzone sky over three defenders to put GOAT back up two at 13-11.

GOAT’s defense would break again, this time with some luck. A floating throw looked ripe for an Ironside block, but Alex Kapinos didn’t intercept the disc, instead tipping it to space, allowing Powell to grab it on the edge of the endzone. The score, putting GOAT on the doorstep to a Regionals victory and a bid to Sarasota, was the defense’s fifth of the game on five Ironside turnovers — perfect efficiency for the Canadians.

After Ironside scored to make it 14-12, GOAT had a chance to win the game on offense. A huge backhand huck to Lindquist looked right on target. LIndquist and his defender, Jack Hatchett, battled for position shoulder-to-shoulder as they sprinted down the field. Lindquist, using his forearm to fend off Hatchett, went up in the endzone and grabbed the disc, yelling as his teammates stormed the field, thinking they had just won.

Everyone watching thought the same. Ironside defensive handler Brandon “Muffin” Malacek said on the sideline, “Well, there goes our number one seed.”

Not so fast. Hatchett called a foul on Lindquist for obstruction, a call you might not see without a game on the line. The two argued at length before veteran observer Wally Kwong made his ruling: foul upheld. GOAT turnover.

Lindquist spiked the disc in anger, picking up a team misconduct foul, before play continued. But, despite getting the disc back just three throws later, GOAT never recovered from the observer ruling. Will Neff kicked things off with a huge catch block to set up an Ironside break.

GOAT proceeded to turn the disc over on offense on each of the next three possessions, mostly on poor throwing mistakes, allowing Ironside to run off five straight points to grab the 16-14 win.

GOAT was left reeling after watching their win slip between their fingers. “The game is done. The game is not done,” said Anatoly Vasilyev, a GOAT defensive handler, in the huddle after the game. “I saw 26 or 27 dudes grinding that wanted to win this game. It’s just unfortunate.”

Kwong told Ultiworld after the game that his crucial decision was straightforward since he saw a clear foul — Lindquist was pushing Hatchett from behind, obstructing his path to the disc. The video evidence — available here in the full game footage — shows that it was a very close call.

With the win, Ironside extended their win streak to 23, which started after their August 11th loss to Portland’s Rhino in the first round of Seattle’s Emerald City Classic. They went on to beat Rhino the next day in the finals. Ironside’s performance at ECC earned them the number one spot in that week’s USA Ultimate Club rankings, which they have held since then. They have played and beaten ten of the top sixteen teams in the country.

UPDATE: Here’s the Jeff Lindquist foul:

Photos courtesy of Burt Granofsky of Ultiphotos. Check out more Northeast Regionals action.

Tagged Anatoly Vasilyev, Brandon Malacek, Geoff Powell, GOAT, ironside, Jamie Quella, Jeff LIndquist, northeast, observers, Open, regionals, rhino, USA Ultimate, Wally Kwong, Will Neff

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Jake

Not very close at all, obvious foul. Arm fully extends the end of the obvious push off.
Matt

Agreed on the foul call, though from this angle we can’t see exactly what the defender is doing with his right arm. It’s fantastic to have video of important plays like this.
Will

I definitely agree on the foul call, although I was not aware that an foul against the offense results in a turnover if upheld by the observer. Is this always the case?
- Charlie Eisenhood
  
  Not necessarily. Many observers don’t like to take the disc away from the offense on a foul like that and will send it back to the thrower. It is at the discretion of the observer.
  - Mitch
    
    “Not necessarily. Many observers don’t like to take the disc away from the offense on a foul like that and will send it back to the thrower. It is at the discretion of the observer.”
    
    This is incorrect. There isn’t any discretion for this situation, the rule is on an uncontested receiving foul, the fouled player gets the disc. The disc is only sent back to the thrower if the observer is unable to make a call if consulted (not “90% sure” as per the observer manual).
    
    Where you do sometimes see the disc returned is fouls before the throw (on the cut) or where you see fouls on both players (before or after the throw).
    - Charlie Eisenhood
      
      Listen to Mitch, sorry for the confusion.
guest

A foul called by the defense on the offense that is upheld must be treated as an uncontested foul. By rule, that means the disc stays with the defense.

There are times when the observer will not make a ruling, and the disc gets sent back. But that’s not what Will asked.
FitzOrange

So wait, im still a bit confused here. me if im wrong, but the player in Red is on D, and the player in white is on O? The player in Red called a foul on the player in white?

If that call is upheld, wont that disc go back to the thrower at the stall they were at +1 or stall 6 if over 5?
- guest
  
  Reread the rules. When an observer rules to uphold a call, it is treated as uncontested. An uncontested receiving foul results in the fouled player taking possession at the spot of the foul.
Travis

“But, despite getting the disc back just three throws later, GOAT never recovered from the observer ruling.”

It wasn’t the observer ruling Goat failed to recover from. They regained possession from that turn which means they had three chances to punch in the disc and finish the game. If an O line can’t score in three chances (and subsequently can’t score just to say in the game) that falls on them, not the observer.
Dan

Definite foul. I don’t know about the “context of the game” and whether that kind of stuff was called before. But that is 100% an offensive foul and should be a turnover. Good call by Wally Kwong (awesome name FYI).
Jason

Context of the game shouldn’t matter, that was a pretty obvious push off. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive after seeing so many blown calls, in so many other sports, but the observer got this one right.
anonymous!

I can’t believe how many people think this is obviously a foul. I don’t see how this is even called, much less upheld.

To me it looks like the Ironside player is upset that he waited to try to make the play after the Goat player had taken the better position. The Ironside guy had the best position, and the Goat guy just keeps running (with his arm out, but not pushing off of the Ironside guy) and eventually makes an easy catch.

From the full length video it appears his initial call is actually that the Goat player inhibits his jumping by pushing down on his shoulder, which is clearly false since the Goat player’s arm is contacting his torso, not his arm – did the observers rule on that call or the arm-bar?

This is the kind of foul that people should be embarrassed to call, you got beat to the spot fair and square.
Daniel

Anon-

The GOAT player achieves better position by pushing the Ironside player out of the way.

The second and third push with the forearm are mostly holding position and could MAYBE be overlooked. But, the initial contact you can clearly see GOAT lean into the Ironside player and shift him a foot or two (or more) to the left.

The defender had better position (relative to where he ended up) until he was pushed out of the way. Doesn’t mean he would have gotten the D, but he never had a chance because he got pushed out of position. Foul on the reciever.

Good call observor.
- anonymous!
  
  I disagree – as long as he isn’t extending his arm to actively push the Boston defender out of the way I consider that jockeying for position and not a foul, especially at this level. It looked like the Boston player got too caught up playing the position game and forgot to make a play for the disc.
Daniel

1. He does extend his arm…not fully, because the defenders body is in the way, but he definitely extends it to push off.

2. Extending the arm is not the only way to push someone out of the way. In this case, he places his arm on the defender and then takes step into them, using his arm to push the defender out of the way. The defender very clearly changes direction AWAY from the disc and the advantageous position when pushed.

The GOAT player puts his left forearm on the defender and rides him the whole play, pushing him to the left. I see at least three distinct points when the defender tries to maintain their line (the defender is in front and getting pushed from behind) and the GOAT player pushes them off that line. Pretty clear foul.
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Jody

“It was all Ironside early. Their offense was running on all cylinders in the first half, easily scoring against GOAT’s defense and looking like the strong team we’ve seen all season. They didn’t have a single turnover in the first half.”

Is this quote only for the ironside O-line or the entire team? I just watched the first point of the Ultiworld coverage and saw 3 turns by Ironside.
- Charlie Eisenhood
  
  Just the O-line.
chris p

good article and thanks for embedding the foul call at the end
Paul Latouche

Sometimes, players touch (without pushing) an opponent just to know where he is because meanwhile, the eye are looking somewhere else (the play or the disc). So just becuase the hand touches the opponent is not in my opinion a proof of a foul. There might not be pushing involved.

Of course, he could avoid the misinterpretation of his touching contact by avoiding any contact which is his fault!
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Ironside Survives Scare, Locks Up One Seed At Club Championships

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