Fall Brawl

Not all weekends can go well, right? Whether that's true or not, we had a rough weekend. Our team needs a kick in the ass every once in a while to put things in perspective and this tournament was it.

We had fall break this weekend so we had a leisurely Friday afternoon in Columbus. It was a good night for Redhawks' Hockey and about 10 us of let every Buckeye fan in the Schottenstein hear about it. We sat perched above the student section in a suite and droned out all of their fans. Before I digress too much into my other passion at Miami, I'll suffice it to say that Miami beat OSU 5-1.

We retired to respective quarters around the Columbus area and prepared for Saturday's ultimate.

We were greeted by a Pitt split squad for our first game of the morning. Our fields were filled with bumps and holes; much like our play that day. There was a significant wind and we threw zone for the better part of the game. Pittsburgh has some impressive players, as one would expect, and they had a good mix of new/veteran players. Our turnover struggles from the previous weekend weren't shaken out and we missed opportunity after opportunity. We battled hard but not smart and Pitt got the better of us and won 12-8.

Our next game was against Carnegie Mellon. Drew Wood was pumped to see us in their pool because when I was a freshman we had a very unpleasant experience with their team (mainly just one enormous asshole). Those days are over for CM, so there wasn't the spark he was hoping for. It's too bad for us because we turn the switch on and off and play terribly inconsistent. We took the first half easily and ran up a 7-2 score. We let them fight their way back to a 10-7 contest and were seeing the signs of a bad omen to come. Miami stopped the bleeding and took three straight to win.

The Dayton game was epic for many reasons. First off, they marched to the fields with over 30 players. An unreal sight. An army of Ghetto Force players lined the fields after they had defeated Pitt 11-6. Another reason is because we are two teams coming into their prime and we play each other hard. The last reason it was epic will be starkly apparent in the coming details...

We came out for the game fired up because playing a sectional opponent is always an added bonus for motivation. And by fired up I mean taking the first half 7-0. We could barely do anything wrong and Dayton couldn't do anything right. They called a timeout after the first two or three points and were very frustrated. We ran another three up on them and they called another to try and regroup. To no avail and Miami put another on the board and took half with a bagel on the other side.

Not only is a 7 point lead large and very difficult to overcome, but we had all the momentum and they could not seem to get anything going. At halftime we discussed about keeping our composure and not letting up. Miami did not heed the advice. Dayton's halftime speech must have been akin to a Spartan warrior cry because they came to play in that second half. Combining Dayton's fire and Miami's complete meltdown, it was a gut wrenching second half for us. Dayton scored 1, then 2, I think we squeaked in one, then they scored a bunch in a row. We could not stop the absolute collapse that was happening. It doesn't seem bad at first and then you realize they are scoring and you are not answering, point after point after point.

The game reached 8s and then got to 11-10, game to 12. Miami scored one to tie it up. Universe point. Dayton's remarkable second half and Miami's utter destruction came to fruition as Dayton scored the winning goal.

It was one of those losses that take the wind out of your sails. You have to hand it to Dayton for a hell of a second half, they overcame a terrible start, that most teams would crumble from, and put a beat down on us. We didn't help ourselves at all and threw turn after turn after turn. We could not capitalize on any opportunity and just did not show up the second half.

It was difficult to just forget but we packed our bags our headed off to the Hamilton's for a feast. Chicken, chili, and pasta couldn't get the bitter taste out, but later that night things were put behind us and we relaxed.

We looked to use Day 2 to get ourselves back on track, but our weekend was in a rut we couldn't get out of. We lost to Buffalo in another ugly performance on our part. Excessive turnovers, lack of inspiration, and sheer lack of execution on both sides of the disc gave us another brutal loss. I think it was 12-10 or so.

Our last game was a slight redemption against a Michigan State team. They were very inexperienced and we saw slight improvement. We took a 13-1 victory and got a slight lift from a dismal weekend. No one was all too satisfied because the damage had been done.

Fall Brawl was a weekend to move past but not forget. We should look to remember our focus, execution, heart, intelligence and discipline on every point in every game. This weekend we didn't have that and we paid for it. Winning a tournament or doing well doesn't mean shit if you can't bring out the same team each weekend a put up a consistent performance. We're still learning this and are looking to improve on it.