Mark Lloyd led GOAT to an incredible upset over reigning champion Revolver.
October 17, 2014 by Tad Wissel in News, Recap with 13 comments
Like San Francisco successfully completing a greatest for a break to take a 3-0 lead. Or when Toronto pulled a Chris Webber and called a timeout when they had no timeouts. Or when Revolver made the second half adjustment to take their biggest household name player, Beau Kittredge, off the O line so he could match up against GOAT’s Mark Lloyd.
In the end, those moments were nothing more than minor obstacles. Obstacles that GOAT would rally around and get past as they completed an unforgettable upset over the reigning World and National champs, 13-12.
The atmosphere of the first five points resembled mob mentality chaos. Revolver’s sideline is the loudest I had seen in the tournament. They are pacing the sidelines whooping and hollering cheering on a defensive unit that is creating turns.
On their first defensive try San Francisco flys down on the pull and sets a clam on GOAT’s vertical stack. Toronto spreads out accordingly but a few throws later find themselves trapped on the sideline by Revolver’s design in a man-to-man look. There is no room to cut and there is no one open. GOAT tries to dump but Patrick Baylis makes a run-through D. Toronto’s offense gets another shot to hold serve, then misfires. Revolvers moves the disc until Alex Evangelides finds Sam Kanner deep and it’s 2-0.
More clam to man transition from Revolver. Their marks are fiercely straight up until half field, challenging every throw. GOAT turns it and this is when Revolver pulls off the greatest; Lucas Dallman to Cassidy Rasmussen at the front cone, who hops out of bounds and dishes it along to Zach Travis. 3-0.
GOAT took a timeout.
Their offense was visibly flustered and Revolver was bringing heavy pressure. Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Well, Toronto had officially been punched in the mouth. GOAT needed a spark and they needed it now. Would they be able to muster a punch back?
Enter GOAT captain Mark Lloyd — and his five first half goals.
Lloyd got his first goal on a less than ideal hammer when he skied two Revolver dudes. On his second goal, he skied again. The third goal was a spin move in a phone booth at the front cone. After his fourth goal, was to make it 7-6 in GOAT’s favor – after which a frustrated Revolver defender shouted, “How many times are they going to float it to him?!” Answer: Once more. On a huge backhand from Thomson McKnight to take half 8-7, up a break.
During that 8-4 run GOAT was totally reinvigorated. Lloyd made the first big play and everyone else followed suit, especially the D line – who ripped off three straight breaks. When people talk about this game in the future, it will be known as the Mark Lloyd Game.
“Our D line is amazing. Their defense was unbelievable. They made nothing easy for Revolver,” Lloyd said after the game. “That’s how you have to play them. Nothing can be easy.”
Nothing was easy for Revolver’s O line in that second half. GOAT started generating pressure.
Justin Foord got loose deep after a San Francisco huck flew just a bit too far. Defensive handler Anatoly Vasilyev hit Morgan Hibbert with a flick huck who made a Morgan Hibbert-type play. Remi Ojo got a D on a flick huck to Revolver’s Evan Boucher that was a carbon copy of the one that made him YouTube famous, then bookended it with a goal of his own.
Revolver coach Mike Payne wasn’t going to stand pat and hope the top seed’s eventually worked things out. So he made an adjustment for the second half.
“Mark Lloyd was killing us jumping in the first half,” Payne said post game. “Beau [Kittredge] felt good enough to play D instead of O so we put him on Mark. Beau definitely is a presence and Mark didn’t go deep as much.”
To illustrate how dominant he was in the air, Kittredge was backing Lloyd by five to 10 yards at all times. That led to two Mark Lloyd assists.
Revolver got a break back when a poacher made a sneaky D and a few throws later found Kittredge at the cone to make it 9-9. A little later, Derek Alexander dropped a break throw at his knees and Revolver again found Beau at the cone. 11-10 Revolver.
At this point, you’re thinking it’s over. A valiant effort by GOAT but Revolver won Worlds two months ago. There’s no way they give this break back.
On GOAT’s offensive point, Kittredge gave Lloyd a ton of room to get a break side in cut, so he sent a towering flick huck to the back right corner of the end zone to Isaiah Masek-Kelly, who powered through multiple San Francisco defenders, including leaving one hanging on his back as he reeled it in.
At 11-11 with the cap on, GOAT’s defense needed to make one more break.
Toronto came down in a hard man. They got Revolver close to the flick sideline and an inside out throw got away from Ashlin Joye, cruising out of bounds on the far sideline. Anatoly Vasilyev picked it up and after about eight seconds of great San Francisco defense threw a low bullet to Andrew Carroll, who was making a bail out cut to the front sideline. Break. 12-11 GOAT, game to 13.
Some of the best defense GOAT played all day was on Revolver’s final possession. San Francisco nearly turned it short on a dump near their own brick mark but Cassidy Rasmussen dug it up with a huge layout and immediately jacked it to Kittredge for a goal to knot the game at 12.
When Revolver’s season came down to one final defensive effort, they packed the line with five offensive studs. Kittredge, Rasmussen, Joye, Robbie Cahill, and Joel Schlachet joined defensive regulars Lucas Dallmann and Russell Wynne.
When GOAT’s season came down to one final offensive possession, Toronto carried on as usual. They worked the disc up the field. They called their final timeout. They got down to the goal line… and Derek Alexander threw a shallow scoober to Jeff Lindquist running up the break side.
*
The first 15 minutes of the game had the headline Revolver Blows Out Toronto all over it, yet in the face of the best team in the world, GOAT regrouped and put together a game for the ages.
Toronto limped into the bracket after going 1-2 in pool play. What looked like a pick ’em prequarters matchup against Sub Zero sent the Canadians to the fancy turf field inside the stadium; they do a full 180. Talk about playing up to the competition.
As the game wore on, GOAT’s resets were able to adjust to Revolver’s style of play. That’s incredibly difficult to do. They cleared quicker and more confidently. Also, since San Francisco was backing Lloyd so much, he was able to come back and handle. That made for no Mark Lloyd skies in the second half, but instead lots of easy resets.
GOAT’s defense played up and bailed out some early jitters by the offense. These guys are huge. 18 of GOAT’s 27 players are listed as 6 feet or taller and they move extremely well. They should make some interesting match ups for Johnny Bravo in semifinals.
Whatever happens the rest of this tournament, this GOAT team has pulled off one of the wildest upsets in recent memory. This win will be dog-eared as a game people will try to blurt out before their friends when the topic of improbable wins comes up in conversation.
After Derek Alexander dropped the pass at his knees that led to the go ahead break for Revolver he looked physically sick on the sideline. One of his teammates walks over and starts joking with him, gives him a three second shoulder rub and tells him he needs to have some fun. Three points later he throws a walk off scoober.
“We kind of make a living on the scoober every now and then,” Lloyd said smiling after the game. “No better way of sealing that win than with a short side scoober.”
