The end of one story is the beginning of another...

The Preseason came to a resounding close last night as FHS, again clad in their dominating Reds, overtook Slower, Whiter, and the Seven Dwarves in a nailbighting 17-15 finish. The other field hosted a game that finished a bit earlier, which saw Purcell and Neff's Ricky's Mom team taken out by Colin's Magnificent Four.

First, the Mag Four. Who woulda thunk? An injured leader, a team with attendance issues, an injured Ollie, all coming together to topple the dominators of Purcell and Neff! It's quite the rags to ric..., er, well, it isn't, but it's a pretty good story nonetheless, sort of like Major League meets Bad News Bears meets The Shining. It actually isn't like that at all, and that grouping is ridiculous, but this tangent serves only to reflect the utter surprise that the Magnificent Four's success has shown. However, it shouldn't really be all that shocking, as their core players- Fumo, Kaiser, Solon, Shih, Juice, Mcgrath- are all incredibly competent players, able to consistently get the job done and efficiently put the flatball in the endzone. Congrats to the chumpionship winners. And, it should be pointed out that Mag Four's record is equal to that of FHS, so why are they in the chumpionship at all? Well, Nate-Solon-who-asked-the-question-and-made
-me-have-to-think-about-it, Mag Four's first victory came under auspicious pretenses, having been able to field only four players of their own (hence the name) and necessitating players from their opponent's squad to earn the win. This W comes with an asterix, and that's my reason and I'm sticking to it. Also, it's just preseason.

But onward! to the Championship.

The story of the day was attendance- it was AWESOME. Like everyone ever showed up, okay, and it was like the sweetest thing evar. Seriously though, it was great ot get full or nearly full squads out to play, and if that is any indication of the regular season, well, this will be a good summer.

Back to the game. FHS was prepared, in their reds as always, and had great numbers, bolstered by the addition of one Craig "Tank" Frankland. Slower, Whiter and the Seven Dwarves had come to play as well, and in white, looked like a veritable avalanche of height, with multiple players coming in well above 6'. The game did not start well for the Dwarves though, as FHS rolled of quick three breaks to start the game with a 3-0 lead. Marching back, the Dwarves made their own run, and after a decently played first half, the score had become 8-6. FHS felt good- they were simply able to capitalize on the one more error that the Dwarves were making each point, and with this semi-efficiency, had kept the game in their hands. This was not to continue though. In the second half, FHS saw their lead begin to slip, and soon saw the game tied and the teams trading points. Both deep shots and the break side were being utilized, with the Dwarves reigning in their previously overhucked bombs to favor higher percentage IO flicks and lefty IO backhands (courtesy of one Noah Bindman), thus cutting out the majority of their turnovers and scoring much more easily. This took away the momentum from FHS who could no longer wait for turnovers to just happen, and playing take-away defense against the Dwarves was proving tougher and tougher. Finally, with the game tied at 15s, the pressure mounted. Armand found Tyler for a deep look that Tyler came down with in a crowd, and then hit D-Rock with a blady flick to go up one. 16-15, game point FHS. Playing hard flick D, FHS forces the Dwarves to dump and swing, preventing many deep shots and giving underneath cuts strong pressure. Finally, a poach in the lane pays off, and FHS gets its needed turn, moving the disc quickly to take advantage of the Dwarves discombobulation after the turn, and Dave Childers places a flick into the hands of a sprinting FHS cutter in the endzone to secure the championship win for FHS.

The victory was sweet, but it's only the slightest of tastes, since this, the preseason, doesn't matter at all, and is only the precursor to what is looking to be a great season.

The moral of the story-- attendance is the key to the league. If we all make it, the games will rock. If we don't, game play suffers.

And now, what we're all interested to see, the regular season teams:

Matt Wilken
Gordon Siegfriedt
Jay Meldrum
Paivo Kinnunen
Matt Dagher Margosian
Lucas Price
Mike Burton
Dave Mccreedy
Dave Fumo
Brendan Schramm
Ed Glowacki
Matt Schlough
Ethan Gillette
Matt Greff

Colin McIntyre
Jake Scobey-Thal
Craig Frankland
Thomas Gilchrist
Ryan Slater
Matt merrins
Ed Serzo
Adam Van Staveren
Terry Shih
Ari Kahan
Andrew Ueeck
Chris Spittal
Eric Geile
Andy Dunn

Ryan Purcell
Justin Canniff
Pat Collins
Henry Tyler
Will Mcgrath
Jeff Juice Osowski
Zak Kemmer
Alec Weiner
Allan Evans
Ollie Honderd
Ryan Sekol
Dave Pug Gagnon
Nate Solon
Armand Conti
Tom Haynes

Tyler Kinley
Kaiser Shen
Darren Galligan
Toby hartman
Ethan Eagle
Ricky Eikstadt
Dave Childers
Dan Fishman
Tejas Rao
Tyson Stevens
Noah Bindman
Andy Foldesi
Matt Wojczinski
Will Neff