2010 Colorado Cup Tournament Recap
Truck Stop takes home the Colorado Cup crown
Truck Stop celebrated the arrival of August with its first ever non-Series elite tournament victory, romping through the competition with an 8-0 record en route to capturing the Colorado Cup Championship. It was our first major tournament victory outside our region, the first non-regional tournament where we went undefeated, and a huge step forward for our program.
We arrived at the fields Saturday to a classic summer day in Boulder: breathtakingly beautiful, shockingly clear, the sheer foothills of the Rockies providing a favorable backdrop to the gorgeous fields. Welcome to the Mountain West. First up on Truck's road to the final: Streetgang from San Diego. Both teams looked less than crisp, but the Truck offense managed to get back what few discs we turned over en route to a flawless offensive game: no breaks. The D stepped up to keep us convincingly in the lead, and the Truck rolled over Streetgang 15-9.
Then began our Midwestern circuit. First Truck stop: Madison, Wisconsin. We've had a testy rivalry with these guys in years past, but this was actually a much-improved game. Cleaner, tempers in check, almost civil. Maybe it's the refreshing mountain air. Same story as the Streetgang game: offense clicked all game, another near zero-break performance. D did its job, producing turns and punching it in. Defensive intensity started to pick up after a lull in the first game. Result: 15-8, good guys. Next stop: Madcow, from somewhere else between the Pacific and Atlantic. Someplace without mountains, no doubt. The story is familiar now: consistent stingy offense, riding the big throws of Sean McComb, the tireless cutting of Brent Bellinger, Keven Moldenhauer, and Ryan Morgan, the imposing twin towers of Gorgeous George and Brian Stout, and the daunting speed of Andrew Berry. Defense again came to play, and did themselves one break better. Refrain: 15-7, good guys. Last stop for the day: Machine. Machine put up a fight, working to a 6-5 lead before the Truck D revved the engines and broke twice to take half 8-6. With the benefit of a 24 Trucker squad and a month of Berry track workouts under our belts, we had the energy where they did not. Game over: 15-8, Truck.
Sunday the real action began, against defending champion Johnny Bravo, a team we had never beat. After slogging through a back-and-forth first half, they converted to take the lead 8-7. But there the momentum would change as the Truck finally made a run, reeling off consecutive breaks to retake the lead and maintaining control the rest of the game. Finally, Bobby Gordon happened. A pick call stopped play downfield but the Trucker with the disc launched it anyway, prompting a double layout in the endzone and a massive collision. Bobby emerged with the disc, preserving possession and leading to a crucial Truck goal. The game was hard-capped with the Truck up 14-12, making the final goal a mere formality: 14-13 Truck. An unexpectedly hard-fought battle against Prairie Fire ensued - they had one big guy who made all their plays and our defense had trouble containing him. But they had more trouble containing us, and though the final score made it seem closer we again controlled the whole game. 15-13 Truck. That win earned us a bid to the Finals, with Furious next on the plate. If we lost, we'd play them again in the final. If we won, it would set up a three-way tie for second and we would likely play GOAT.
Another hard-fought first half, both Ds producing turns but unable to convert. Fired up, the Truck brought intense D pressure and some much-needed conversions, and Furious folded. They looked like they were missing some players, and ultimately didn't have the personnel needed to close out the game or make the big plays in the clutch. 14-10 Truck.
Which brought the Truck to the final stop, our destination from the very beginning. The finals. GOAT. The fields were lined with fans to start, though we started losing them as the wind picked up and the vanguard of a thunderstorm let loose its preliminary drops. Tough conditions, but not so much that the game turned sloppy. Made our deep game much tougher and played into Hassell's smooth handle, but also made it more a battle of attrition. And unfortunately for Canada, we had more numbers and more legs.
Good game, but we controlled the whole thing. We wanted it more. Opened with a downwind break, and picked up a couple more as the game progressed. We were just clicking. The backbreaker came on a massive upwind I-O backhand from Truck pin-up model Alan Kolick to PoNY acquisition Duke... followed shortly by another giant toss from Robin Poullath again to Duke for a toe-dragging goal in the upwind endzone. Tough to recover from that, and GOAT couldn't. They're a good team and didn't roll over without a fight, picking up a big break to bring the score to 14-11. But ultimately they couldn't stop the rampaging Truck, and a sweet upline handler sequence from our lefties ended the Canadian dreams: 15-11. Colorado Cup Champions.
Amazing tourney in a stunningly beautiful location. Weather was virtually flawless (could have done without the rain flurry on Sunday afternoon, though the cloud cover was nice). Great to see our guys stepping up and closing out games against good teams. With the exception of the bearded dude in sunglasses from Praire (Cameron?), the Truck dominated the air across the board, consistently pulling down Ds and scores in traffic. Huge play all weekend from Bobby Gordon and PoNY transfer Duke BK, with big play cameos from rookies Frankie Hazera and Rob Dulabon.
Two weeks until the next Truck stop: the Emerald City Classic, against the best competition elite Club has to offer. Time to roll.
For full tournament results, click here: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#open/tournament/7733