Day 1 at Nationals: the Fossil perspective

Again, apologies for not tweeting the live score updates; I thought I was, fortunately someone pointed out my error.

As for Day 1 at Nationals, it was an exciting experience for me, as I was one of a handful of Fossil players making their CUC debuts today.  Oddly, wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be.  Don’t know if that’s a good thing.

Our 1st game was a rematch of a very intense matchup at No Borders against BDU (universe point win for Fossil).  We had our full compliment of handlers here, unlike NB, and we were able to shake off some rusty O early, and get out to a quick lead.  Every time I thought we were going to put the game away, BDU kept rallying, before we finished them off 15-10.  For an undermanned squad (missing Ken Lange, and losing 2 more players to injury during our matchup), they brought it right until the end.  I thought we did a much better job containing their long game, which was something that killed us in Ottawa.

On the next field over, GLUM was putting a big hurt on GOB, from Montreal, getting up 12-1, before cruising to a 15-4 win.  They (GLUM) were up next for us and, even though Peter Knowles was absent, it was apparent that this team was far beyond any team we had faced this year.

GLUM’s D was firing on all cylinders in the 1st half, Ian Brooks was taking away everything underneath, with 3 very nice layout D’s to force turns in our own end.  GLUM cruised to an 8-1 half-time advantage.

Fossil came out strong to start the 2nd half, and began to chip away at GLUM’s lead, getting it down to 10-6 at one point, before GLUM turned it up and ran away to a 15-6 victory.  GLUM was very impressive today, and it will be tough to see someone other than them taking home the gold (caveat: I have yet to see FIGJAM play).

On the field next to us, BDU and GOB were playing a tight affair, that was 11-10 (GOB, I believe) at soft cap, but BDU pulled out the victory.

Our 3rd game was against Grind (Vancouver), and, in what was becoming a theme for the day, our offence was just not clicking quite right.  We’d have stretches were it ran smoothly, but nothing that we could sustain.  Our O line was fantastic at shrugging it off and getting D’s back, but we could not convert often enough.  Grind ran out to a 4-1 lead after we got the opening point, and our D-line began to bring us back.

We noticed that Grind’s handlers were fairly locked into the dump positions, and weren’t looking to take advantage of any upline cuts; we were able to take advantage by tightening up on the handlers, and forced some turns, and eventually took the lead 11-10.  Due to numerous marathon points and injuries, we were up against time cap at 13-12 Grind, and they “grinded” out a 15-13 win.

Not sure what these means for us, as I don’t have all final round scores for the Masters division, but my best guess is that Flood (Winnipeg), Grind and ourselves will be battling for the final 2 spots in the semi’s.  We face Flood to finish pool play Saturday morning, in a rematch of last year’s bronze medal game (which Fossil won).  There’s a good chance that match determines the final spot in the semi’s.

We open tomorrow with FIGJAM, than finish up with Epic (Calgary B) and GOB.  Hopefully our offence gets back on track, and we can really throw a wrench into the masters pool standings with a 3-0 day.

Until tomorrow,

Jeff, Fossil 18