Raleigh, NC -- The road to the 2001 Nationals in Sarasota, FL began at Regionals in Tar Heel country under the leadership of Jim Brose, Jim Viner, and Steve Wherry. The weekend's play went practically flawless....except for that first game wake up call with Hoss (Wilmington / Port City). Those guys came out and jumped out to a 4-0 lead before we realized that if we dropped our first game that maybe the road to Sarasota wasn't going to be clear sailing? After a time out we scored our first goal and turned up the psyched play to get the game tied at 7-7. Hoss took the half 8-7 but Old Sag tied it up at 10s and then again at 12s before getting the lead at 13-12 & 14-13 when the cap went on the game was to 15 with Sag up by one. Sag had a clear discussion with the tournament director (TD) about how many time outs were left. The TD said the game was capped and there were no time outs for either team. Sag pulled to Hoss and Hoss sent the disc to the end zone and a foul was called on Steve Wherry with no contest. Hoss tapped the disc in on the goal line and had a player open in the end zone. However, in an awesome recovery on defense with Steve holding a hard mark and Spicer busting ass to cover the Hoss player in the end zone, the disc got dumped back and then swung across the field to a wide open Hoss player who decided to become Chris Weber and call a time out. Doh! Sag started yelling that it was a turnover and quickly picked up the disc to march down and put in the winning score for a thrilling 15-13 victory over Hoss. After a rude awakening, Old Sag reset the contols to cruise on the Road to Sarasota.
The second game was against the Jersey Masters. They were no match for America's team as we quickly cruised to victory over NJ and had a bye for round 3. Old Sag was feeling good at 2-0. During the bye round Sag decided to leave the fields for some grub in the AC during the hottest part of the day somewhere in the 80's. After returning Sag then warmed up for the showdown with Cranky for the possiblitlity of getting the #1 seed.
Cranky for some reason played their first game against Jersey (#6 seed), had a bye, and then played the pickup team (#7 seed) in the 3rd round. So not having been tested, Cranky was thinking the day's work would be a good workout with Sag before finishing up play on Sunday.
Cranky got the first goal and Sag tied the game up at 1-1 and then again at 2-2. Sag gained a lead at 3-2 and 5-3 and 6-5 and 7-6. The score was tied at 7-7 with Cranky pulling to Sag. Cranky got the turnover and was able to take the half at 8-7 but Sag knew they could run with Cranky. Sag pulled to Cranky to start the second half and got the turn and tied the game up at 8-8. Then what happened may be the greatest offensive and defensive run in the brief history of OLD SAG. The Saggers completely peaked during this half with the O & D running efficiently and everyone working hard and together. OLD SAG ran the score to 14-8 in what has to be the most amazing run for the Saggers. Cranky was taken out of their flow on O and could not stop the various O looks Sag was throwing at them. The Homey Double Stack got amazing results with multiple options of throwing to open cuts. Everything was working and even the pulls were done with precision with Keith and Schoettle working the sun in the stategy. It paid off when Cranky dropped the pull in the end zone and SAG put it right in for the score. The game's final point point was scored by Sven going totally horizontal and grabbing the disc inches from the ground. Old Sag was now 3-0.