USC Men's Ultimate

The Ghettobirds took their first day success into the Championship Bracket on Sunday at the Pres Day Invite, and we didn’t disappoint.

We drew Chico State as our first match of the day at 9am. Chico finished last in their “power pool”- the tournament was designed with 2 power pools consisting of the 10 best teams, and then 2 other pools of everybody else. Every team in the power pool made it to the Championship Bracket but only the top team of each of the other 2 pools made it in, so we were one of those 2 top teams. Long story short, Chico was seeded higher than us.

We came into the match sore from the day before, but fired up.

Starting out on defense, the Ghetto took it to Chico early and scored three straight offensive points without turning the disc over. Kyle found Tall Will Price in the end zone on a deep forehand huck for the first score, then Kenny found Will again on a backhand huck to tie the game at 2.

After going up 3-2, we battled point-for-point with Chico. Using great, fast Ghettobird offense, Kyle was able to find Kenny for a quick dish and a score. Then V-Neck sent a forehand huck deep- good decision but the wind carried the disc- and amongst a crowd of people, Kyle skied everyone and came down with the disc- left handed! However, Chico got a quick break before the half to take the lead 7-5.

Coming out of the half, the Birds scored two out of the next three points to reel it in to 8-7. Kenny found Chicago for a score off smooth give-and-go with 3-D. But Chico got a quick huck off the pull and then another score and was looking to put the game away as they went up 10-7.

Yet, the Birds weren’t finished. Coming out of a timeout, we scored 3 of the next 4 points to bring it to 11-10, but Chico got a few lucky breaks and ended the game with two unanswered points to take the 13-10 win. Despite the loss, it was probably the best Ultimate that Ghetto has played in the last few years, and we were just a drop here and a throw-away there from taking the win. Due to his great defense and efficient cutting, Alan won King of the Game honors.

After being bumped for the Championship Bracket, the Ghettobirds moved down to the fields were we went 4-0 the day before to take on Santa Barbara B. We had beaten them in the fall in a tight game and we knew it wouldn’t be easy the 2nd time around.

Santa Barbara came out throwing zone defense, which the Ghettobirds dissected to perfection. Jay-Bird found Grant for a score on which Grant made an unbelievable layout catch in the endzone. Thomas also caught a score as did Tall Will off a nice 30 yard throw through the zone from Grant. Jay-Bird added another assist when he found Kenny iso-ed in the end zone.

However, it went point-for-point as our defense was showing it’s fatigue, giving SB many breakmark throws leading to downfield scores. But just before half, the Birds got a crucial break to take a 7-5 lead. Yet, SB wasn’t fazed as they quickly tied the game up at 7-7 after halftime.

It was neck and neck the rest of the game as neither team could get the crucial break. The points became longer as SB starting calling questionable fouls and making iffy calls, and both teams were feeling fatigue as the turnovers increased. Kyle was able to get a great D right on the end zone, where he quickly found Grant for the score to put us up 8-7. SB countered took a 9-8 lead as hard cap blew. One more point for SB, and they would win.

But the offensive line didn’t relent. Despite a few turnovers, we played very tough and courageous defense. Grant came down with an unbelievable sky right on the endzone line while almost being tackled by an SB player. With the game on the line, Ghetto calmly dumped-and-swung until Kenny found Chicago up-the-line for a front-cone end zone score to knot the game at 9.

It came down to Universe Point- next team to score would win. Jay-Bird came up with a great D on a huck in the endzone to deny SB the game. After a USC turnover, SB again threw it deep again, only to see Grant come down with the disc on their end-line. The Birds were then able to get it to 5 yards from the endzone, as Thomas caught a great pass near the line. However, SB was able to D the throw into the endzone targeted for 3-D. From there, after a couple passes, they threw a huck that was caught for the score. SB won 10-9. For his great D- Kyle won King of the Game honors.

Despite these 2 losses, we played our best Ultimate we’ve ever played and there’s definitely still room for improvement. We ended up getting 13th place as the next 2 teams forfeited- clearly scared of us. We hung around for another hour playing fun games within the team before heading home (while stopping by Portillos on the way home of course). A Special Thanks goes out to Tall Will’s mom, for making us delicious cookies that got us through our games. We have a few weeks off until our next tournament in Irvine- which we are already stoked about.

G-H-E-T-T-O!!!!