October 27, 2012 by Charlie Eisenhood in News, Recap with 4 comments
It looked inevitable: Boston’s Ironside facing off against San Francisco’s Revolver in the finals in a classic rematch of last year’s title game. But Austin’s Doublewide denied Ironside that chance with a hard-fought 14-12 semifinals victory, snapping Boston’s 29 game win streak.
Doublewide started off in the windy game with an upwind break and quickly made it 2-0. They would tack on another pair of breaks to take a commanding 6-2 lead. With the windy conditions, the game looked like it might have been over right away. “It was great momentum to have early, especially against a number one team,” said Doublewide handler Kurt Gibson.
But Ironside wasn’t going to go down easy. They would take advantage of a Doublewide miscue in their endzone and scored four straight points to tie the game at 7-7 with a downwind point to take half.
But, in a critical posession, Doublewide worked it all the way up the field to take half. “That was a big sigh of relief,” said Doublewide’s Max Cook.
Doublewide received the pull at halftime and scored downwind to go up by two. Both teams were ripping hucks both upwind and down, most didn’t connect. After the soft cap went on at 12-10, Ironside was fighting hard to get back even in the game. A big Doublewide huck went up and an Ironside defender dove and tipped the disc towards the left sideline of the endzone. It looked to be headed out of reach, but Cook made a spectacular layout catch, taking all the momentum and putting them on the doorstep for a bid to the finals.
After giving up a downwind score, Doublewide closed out the game 14-12.
Despite getting crushed by Revolver 15-3 yesterday in power pools, Doublewide felt confident heading into the game against Ironside, a team they lost to at the Emerald City Classic earlier this season. “We knew our upwind game was better,” said Cook.
The wind, a huge factor this weekend, was gusting throughout the game. “The wind was really to our advantage,” said Gibson. “I think our throwers were able to get some good looks upwind.”
Neither team got a break in the second half. Ironside captain George Stubbs said, “I thought we had a better second half offensively.” It was their defense that let them down. Notably, defensive handler Brandon “Muffin” Malacek wasn’t playing.
Ultimately, Doublewide just outplayed Ironside. We tweeted early in the game that it could be decided by the two early breaks by Austin. With not a single break coming in the second half, their good start made all the difference.
“We played our game and Doublewide played theirs,” said Stubbs. Doublewide’s was just better.
