Chicago and Boston come out of the gate swinging.
July 17, 2024 by Edward Stephens in Recap with 0 comments
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Fredericksburg, VA — 16 teams fought through oppressive East Coast heat to work on their first true competitive reps of the season. No one wins a championship in July, but a pair of divisional heavy hitters, neither of whom have ever won a club title before, came away with important first-leg successes. Beyond the top, a few teams grabbed or ceded important ground in the all-important fight for strength bids.
A Machine That Turns Games into Wins
The first flag of the 2024 season has been planted: #2 Chicago Machine officially staked their claim to a run toward the national championship with an undefeated weekend PEC East. They held back a strong #4 Boston DiG side for an 11-8 victory in the tournament final.
Played in brutally hot, windless, cloudless conditions with periodic full heat breaks and an extra minute of rest inserted between every point, the final was lighter on energy than might be expected of a contest between two such ambitious teams. Both seemed more invested in getting reps in their systems and troubleshooting difficult moments than going all out for the win. Nevertheless, Machine proved across several isolated moments that they can dial up the intensity.
The first moment came six points in. The game was on serve after each team made some early season-style execution errors and the defenses had been feeling out the offense’s priorities. Machine edged a slow-moving DiG possession all the way to the backhand sideline. Josh Markette couldn’t find a continuation option, and he tossed a long horizontal forehand to re-center the offense. That was exactly the pass Machine had been looking for: Jake Steslicki1, as the nearest vertex of a triangle of defenders covering the middle of the field, pounced for a catch block. Machine quickly converted with a huck to Tim Schoch.
They kept the pedal floored through their next two offensive possessions. The first was a whirlwind of passes revolving heavily around Paul Arters, Johnny Bansfield, and Nate Goff that left the DiG defense looking a little toothless. The second started with a turnover as Malik Auger-Semmar underthrew a huck. Bansfield, though, stopped DiG’s counter cold with a soaring layout catch-block before standing up to deliver a blistering and perfectly placed forehand huck to Goff. That kept Machine’s one-break advantage intact heading into the second half.
The second half featured similar outbursts of brilliance. Auger-Semmar cut deep and backed down a defender for 10 yards before reaching behind his head to grab the disc over the defender’s head. Arters drilled a couple of quick-trigger hammers to his receivers’ chests. Perhaps their greatest moment, however, was a defensive stand. At 9-7, they played the best version of the hybrid matchup-poach coverage that has become their calling card over the years. For a dozen throws, DiG couldn’t do anything but reset and swing at their own brick. When they finally found a little bit of forward progress, the possession evaporated with a sudden contest on a quick centering look, forcing a drop.
“I can show you my arm. I have goosebumps right now,” said Keegan North, remembering the defensive stand.
Machine scored in a single throw after the turn. That break essentially iced the game, as the teams held out the final two points.
The tournament win is a rare accomplishment for Machine. “The result of this tournament doesn’t really mean anything,” said North. “But it’s validating because it’s our first regular season win since 20162… It meant a lot to come out and prove that we’re here and we want that.”
Putting aside the satisfaction of an undefeated weekend, though, there are plenty of reasons to get excited for Machine’s potential. John Lithio was a natural fit on the O-line. Xavier Payne and Luke Brennan both appear to have made significant improvements since last season. Andrew Sjogren is even more dialed into his D-line-gremlin role. The team’s offensive top-end (Goff, North, Bansfield, Arters, Auger-Semmar) played with more pace than any other unit at the tournament.
And for all that, they have yet to bring in their longtime center handler (Pawel Janas), the reigning European Player of the Year (Daan de Marrée), and in-his-prime three-time All-Club First Team disc wizard Joe White. Optimism is the word.
Big DiG Weekend
With the caveat that they didn’t play their best game in the final, all signs point to a major year from the newly supercharged DiG. At their best, they overwhelm the field with offensive firepower. Four of their O-line players – Jeff Babbitt, Simon Carapella, Peter Boerth, and Belgian transfer Tobe Decraene – could lay claim to the title of best receiver at the tournament.3 It is, frankly, an embarrassment of downfield talent.
“We’re deep,” said sixth-year DiG veteran Josh Markette. “On our O-line, especially.”
How do they decide who gets priority? “If Jeff [Babbitt’s] in the area, he gets the first look,” said captain Ned Dick, who, because he was injured, got to enjoy the show from the sidelines. “But if you’re one of those four guys and you’re in a good spot to cut — go cut. That’s kind of how we’ve been doing it, and it worked well.”
The distribution team sets them up for success. Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey (gritty and safe), Ethan Fortin (boundlessly creative), Charles Weinberg (aggressive, audacious), and Markette (seasoned and slippery) have handling operations down pat. The team’s capacity for resets was virtually inexhaustible thanks to the mix of skill sets, as well as some innovative strategy: DiG often position the reset 15- to 20-yards behind the disc to allow for more space, momentum, and angles of attack following a dump throw. As an experiment it was mostly successful, although we are likely to see them iron out more details about when *not* to employ this so-called ‘Mega-Dump’ as the season wears on.
The defense showed chops, too. Orion Cable continues his reign as one of the very best pure block-getters in the country. Reed Browning, Brendan McCann, and Ben Horrisberger were excellent as physical matchup defenders. Cable, Ken Noh, Noah Backer, Albert Yuan, and Oliver Fay often turned the blocks into breaks. Collectively they looked heat-struck and slow in the final. Make of that what you will: up to then they were excellent.
The best news for DiG, though, is that there seems to be plenty of room between this weekend’s performance and the team’s ceiling. Neither Carapella nor Boerth played in the final. Dick was joined on the sidelines all weekend by newcomer Calvin Stoughton and veteran Gus Haflin, all three of whom figure to aid the D-line cause significantly. And how will they integrate superstar Rowan McDonnell when he joins the fight later this year?
“I honestly wasn’t sure how this weekend was going to go… We’re still very much building chemistry,” said Dick. “But my main takeaway is that I’m really excited for the season. I think our ceiling is a championship.”
As high as that ceiling might prove, at least one veteran on the team points to the floor as the real indicator for their capabilities.
“I think it’s extremely exciting. What’s most exciting is that our floor is so high. I don’t remember the last time I was on a team [where the floor was so high].” said Markette, one of the longest-tenured players in the division. “Except maybe 2016 [Ironside] and 2009 [Chain Lightning].”
In case you were wondering, both of those were championship years.
Subscribers can read on for coverage of the other two semifinalists, notes from around the complex, and the All-Tournament Line.
In a previous version of this story I misattributed the block to Jace Bruner, who did not attend PEC East. ↩
Chicago Machine won the 2016 US Open. It was at the height of their Bushwhackers era. ↩
For my money, I’ll take Boerth’s weekend by a hair over his teammates’. ↩
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