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Missouri Loves Company, Nov 14-15th, 2009
The Sluut's meet behind Griesedieck towers at 5:15 AM to depart for Jefferson City to participate in the sixth annual Missouri Loves Company tournament. Per the usual, with everyone running on frisbee time, the fleet of cars did not leave St. Louis until close to 6AM, which would be cutting it very close to their first scheduled game time against Midwest Jesuit rival Loyola Chicago Darkwing.
The SLUUT car rolled up to the soccer complex in Jeff City at about 8:05, a mere 15 minutes prior to the starting gametime to find a full Loyola squad already finishing there warm-ups. This game would indeed, be old school SLUUT. After wining the flip, captain Kyle Benson elected to pull to start the game. Fielding 7 barely warmed up players is a usual occurrence for SLU, and even though tired, SLU struck first with a big upwind break from captain Max Morgan to 5th year senior Henry Samson. Loyola, however answered with a quick huck to take the game to 1-1.
For the first time in years, a solid O-line for SLU could take the field. Benson joined former captain (and recent ACL recoveree) Chris Meglan and newly acquired Princeton grad Brandon Szeto at handle while Morgan and Samson would work the stack with senior Max Nash-howe and junior Lyle Wilson. After an almost flawless O line score, the stingy SLUUT defense rattled off two quick breaks, forcing Darkwing to call a timeout with SLUUT leading 4-1.
Control of the game quickly changed after the time out though, as Darkwing capitlized on the cold legs of SLU defenders and a few unlucky turnovers. SLU all of a sudden found themselves on the wrong side of a possession battle, down 5-6. The two teams traded points until Darkwing took half 6-7.
The two teams continued to trade points until, tied at 9's, and stuffing Darkwing close to their own endzone, freshman Mikey Manning came up with a huge D guarding the handles which allowed Samson to hit an open Morgan on a break side iso-cut to make the game 10-9 SLU. On the ensuing possession, Morgan and Samson switched defenders, allowing Samson to guard from the stack position. Using the spark from Manning's D, Samson got a layout D midfield, only to throw it away on a foolish huck. Loyola capitalized on this turnover, tied the game, then got another break to regain the possession battle at 11-10.
Captain Kyle Benson called a timeout after Darkwing took the lead at 12-11. Knowing that they had to score or lose, Benson and Morgan called for an adult swim D line. A good pull resulted in favorable field position. After a miscommunication turnover for Darkwing, Samson hit Nash-Howe in the endzone to tie the game at 12's. SLU would need two more break points to win the game, which was now capped at 14. A long next point seemed to take its toll on Darkwing as the better conditioned SLUUT's earned a D and worked it upwind for gritty point. Now only needing one more point, the vets stayed on the field and forced a Darkwing turnover at mid field. Meglan picked up the disc and hit Samson downfield. Lyle Wilson nearly broke his defender's ankles and received the disc about 10 yards from the endzone. He then connected with deadly accuracy to Samson coming off a give and go gunslinger cut in the front of the endzone to put a cap on the SLU victory.
#4 seed SLU over #1 seed Loyola Chicago: 14-12
SLU had a much appreciated second round bye and deployed the fleet of freshmen (Mikey Manning, Danny Murphy, and Zac Johnson) to go pick up junior Austin Reed at the train station. Austin- you know the shout out was coming- apparently slept in through his alarm that morning and forgot to leave his phone on after a night of jollies and had to catch the train to play. He's an idiot. Rounding out the team for the day were juniors John Murphy and Justin Landherr, and sophomore sky-closer Justin Van Sant and Willy Wonka look-a-alike Pat Porter.
Game #2 for SLU was another rival team, Missouri Rolla. Separated by 100 miles on highway 44, these two teams have a history of frenzy paced defense and good games. (More will come on the Rolla rivalry later.) This game would almost mirror the first game of the day for SLU. After receiving the pull, Meglan and Szeto walked the disc up field and hit Samson streaking in. As if not learning his lesson, Samson bombed an outside in backhand to Van Sant down by the endzone. Van Sant then pulled a greatest (yes, a greatest) which was caught by a trailing Landherr, who immediately hit Porter in the endzone for a quick SLU lead 1-0.
Luck, it seemed, would go both teams ways as a macked reception in the endzone fell right into a Miner Threat's player's hands to tie the game at 1-1. Rolla capitalized on this momentum by working the field with in-cuts and quick mid range hucks to take the lead 3-1. After a pump up time out from Kyle Benson, Max-Nash Howe and Brandon Szeto connected on a few shots, aided by the consistently open Porter and textbook chilly handling of Meglan to puck SLUUT back on top 4-3. A downwind D point awaited SLU and right in front of the SLU sideline, Meglan and his bionic knee showcased a picturesque layout D through an in cut to get the disc back. Getting up and throwing to Morgan while making robot sounds seemed effortless to Chris as Morgan then found Nash-Howe in the endzone for another goal to make the score 5-3.
For the reminder of the game, both teams were plagued by untimely turnovers and ridiculous lay out D's (another notch in Meglan's belt), but SLU proved to be too strong for Rolla as they cruised to a 13-10 victory.
#4 seed SLU over #2 seed Rolla: 13-11
The third match-up of the the day featured a very young Indiana-B team against a SLU team carrying momentum from two solid victories. Morgan and Benson decided to use the strategy "We'll go up by 4, then everyone gets to play as much as they want." The strategy seemed like a god idea, until SLU momentarily lost focus and found themselves tied 1-1 against a very inexperienced team. After regrouping nicely, SLU put the hurt on Indiana and adopted a revolving door strategy for its players. The three freshmen got ample playing time while junior screw-up Austin Reed was forced to play every point in the game. The Justins Van Sant and Landherr had standout performances, as well as Pat Porter, who was quickly gaining the trust and respect of all the vets.
Senior Max Nash-Howe had a cheering section of parents, girlfriend, and canine (Monty) to watch him play with ease on the field this round. SLU costed to victory by 9 points in about 35 minutes.
#4 seed SLU over #5 seed Indiana-B: 13-4
After watching Grinnell squeak out a come from behind victory over Darkwing in the previous round (14-13) SLU warmed up for its final game of the day. A victory would not only mark the first 4-0 Saturday in two years for the team, but would also solidify a lace in the Championship bracket on Sunday, enabling the team to finish no lower than 16th place. After being ranked 30th at the tournament, not too shabby...
Grinnell touted some respectable players, even a 6'6'' giant with footspeed, but they lacked depth. Bringing 10 people to the tournament seemed advantageous to SLU in the end as Grinnell seemed very worn-out from the beginning of the game. Still they battled hard and took advantage of some lazy SLUUT production on the offensive side of the disc.
After taking half 7-4, SLU traded a few points with Grinnell until a Nash-Howe hammer pull began to cap a game that SLU would dominate in the second half. After the score was 8-5 in favor of SLU, the SLUUTs continued with a four point run to put the score at 12-5.
#4 seed SLU over #3 seed Grinell: 13-6
It's a shame that Grinnell wa too tired to take the game very seriously, but given the line-ups that the SLUUT's could have produced, it probably would have resulted in a closer SLU victory. Sunday morning the SLUUT's awoke to temperatures in the mid to low 40s and rain that was pouring. Play would have gone on as normal had lightning strikes and some thunder claps not have rolled into the Jeff City area. It was a shame really, as SLU was slated to play Perennial powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater in the first round, and then either Harding or cross city rival WashU in the second game.
One can only speculate the result of Sunday given the cold temperatures and bad weather. But all things said, MoLoCo 2009 will go down in the SLUUT annals as a very successful tournament that can only promise a very competitive Spring season in St. Louis.
