Yale Coffee Cup 2006

Sept 30 – Oct 1

The first installation of Dartmouth Ultimate for the 2006-2007 season met on the steps of Rauner Library at 7 o’clock on Saturday morning. Most of those expected to show up did, which is really all you can ask for in the fall (Where were you, Coenstein?). With a grand total of 4 practices under our belts, we felt ready to represent down in CT, and piled into the Tumbler, the Lil Blue Pill, the Carr’s Carr, the Nate Raines mobile (I’m still working on one for that) and the Terrorists-Have-Won (aka the Church, apparently. A DoG reference from Billy McCarthy, perhaps?)

Game 1: Dartmouth vs. Columbia

In Dartmouth’s first game, we took on New York’s Columbia University team. This year’s Yale Coffee Cup was split into 4 pools of 4 each, with two of the pools composed solely of Ivy League teams, because the TDs get off on snobbery, apparently. The ‘Fall 2006 Ivy League Ultimate Champion’ (which is sort of like winning a Regional Emmy, I think. Or maybe being the Ivy League Football Champ.) would then go on to face the winning peasants from such mediocre institutions as Williams, MIT and Brandeis for the championship.
Anywho, Dartmouth took it to Columbia fairly solidly. The game featured an early opening of our deep games, with David ‘Schmidty Dave’ Schmidt, Watson ‘JWats’ Sallay and Matt ‘Mackey’ Mackey hauling down a fair share of contested bombs in or around the endzone. Handling came courtesy of Ariel ‘Burial’ Eckstein, Sam ‘Cobbles’ Haynor and some idiot ’09. Dartmouth’s defense struggled a bit downfield, as almost all of their scores came from points without break throws, where receivers just beat their men to the open side. However, good pressure on the marks and dumps cut off a lot of Columbia’s options, and the Dartmouth offense mostly clicked for the win.

Game 2: Dartmouth vs. Princeton

Princeton is not often considered a powerhouse in the realm of competitive ultimate. However, Dartmouth came into this game knowing that they had just upset the topseed in our pool, Harvard, fresh off a trip to Nationals last spring. The game plan for Princeton became immediately obvious – quick handlers throw up field, catch the horizontal pass as they streak past the receiver and hit a bomb. Easier explained than guarded against. This game went back and forth, with neither team getting ahead by as many as two breaks, mainly due to solid man-to-man D by the Pain Train and decisive cutting on offense that allowed us to get open underneath for big gainers.
After agreeing that games should be played to 13, Dartmouth gave away a few chances to seal the door towards the end. Instead, Clockwork Orange (Princeton’s nickname) stuck around, answering back every time we scored until the score got to 16-16 and, after some discussion, both teams agreed that the following point would be Universe (aka Next Point Wins). Clockwork pulled the Pain Train, who made quick, if needlessly exciting, work of the last point. As both Charlie ‘umm, Cookie, I think?’ Guthrie and Chris ‘Chimpo’ Cahill streaked deep, Dermott ‘Dermo’ McHugh put a big huck under the laid out body of the Princeton star, known only as ‘Pink Hat.’ Well, the throw, later revealed to be intended for Chimpo, was hauled down by a twisting Chuckie, who then let a floaty backhand off into the endzone for the Captain, who was making a textbook S cut. As his man boxed him out and Charlie’s tried to climb up his back, Widdle Wimpo climbed the ladder, got HUGE and ripped down the winning score. 17 – 16 Dartmouth.

Game 3: Dartmouth vs. Harvard

After the win against Princeton, Dartmouth approached the Harvard game with confidence. Despite several close games (read: one) last Spring, Red Line had derailed the Pain Train every time the two met since the final Fall Tournament last year. Without super-duper stars Jack Marsh and Will Chen, Harvard was adjusting to a new style of play. Apparently, this style was ‘Find a way to injure the other team without actually doing anything malicious to them,’ because by the end of the game, vital components like Dermo, Mackey, Socks and (temporarily) Watson were all sidelined with injuries.
The Silver Lining to such unfortunate accidents was an opportunity for newer players to start discovering their place on Dartmouth Ultimate. Adam Gardner ’10 handled for much of this game, as did Kevin Pfeiffer ’09. Jack Sisson ’09, our very own ‘Red Shirt,’ also stepped up his game on the cutting side, and Billy McCarthy was always ready to sprint around on the points we threw Zone defense.
Anywho, in the second half Harvard simply executed better than Dartmouth did, and came away with the win 13 – 10. Now, things get frustrating. Because Princeton beat Harvard beat Dartmouth beat Princeton, there was a three way tie for 1st in the pool. So, per tournament rules, it came down to score differential. Harvard lost to Princeton by 4, and beat us by 3, resulting in a net of negative one. Princeton beat Harvard by 4 and lost to us by 1, so they ended plus 3. We ended negative two… so if we scored one more point against Harvard, or shut down Princeton a bit earlier, we get second in the pool. Instead, we finished 3rd.

Game 4: Dartmouth vs. Yale

Frustrated by the mysteries of mathematics, Dartmouth entered the quarterfinals of the Chumpionship with every intention of making the host team pay for what we had just barely missed out on. Instead, we came out flat. Superfly (I could probably figure out how to make an umlaut, but that’s not worth the effort) took the first 3 points and instead of firing it up and responding in kind, Dartmouth seemed content to just hang around, letting Yale and their mediocre cheering section take half 8 – 5.
This would not stand. The second half saw more aggressive line calling by the two captains, and Dartmouth clawed back into it, piecing together the Yale strategy and confounding them with a 1-3 zone, hallmarked by the return of Pete ‘Socks’ Bonano as the puke. Several new Pain Trainers played critical roles in these zones, with front walls featuring Schmidty, Billy and Ariel quite often, as well as Kevin Pfeiffer who laid all of his energy out on a first half zone point.
By the second half of the second half (some would even call it the fourth quarter, but those people are idiots and should not be trusted), Dartmouth was in shape. We broke Yale several times in a row towards the end, including one point where a Mike Zargham huck that was somehow both too floaty and too bladey was ripped down by Jack Sisson for a score. Dartmouth won 15 – 12.

That Night:

Ms. Guthrie very graciously put up with an invasion from Hanover for the night, stuffing us with amazing chili for dinner and what must have been two or three pigs worth of bacon the next morning. Could not have dreamed of more, including a TV screen actually bigger than the one in the Terrorists-Have-Won, three air mattresses and adorable dogs. We are, collectively, suckers for pets. Although Cobbles may have given one of them Mono.

Game 5: Dartmouth vs. Penn

We approached the semifinals of the Chumpionship with a good mindset. We warmed up well, drilled, got touches, everything you hope to do before a game. It didn’t matter. We just had a ton of problems with Penn’s deep game and mis-executed often on offense. Adam Gardner’s cutting and man-to-man D both shone through, as did Watson’s infamous D, which culminated with a layout boxout out of bounds onto a poorly placed gravel path. One way or another, we got smoked.


We’ve got a long way to go. However, we also have a long time to get there. The team that represented Dartmouth Ultimate at Yale Coffee Cup has had a total of 4 practices and featured who have either never played together or not done so in months. Factoring in the temporary losses of Dermott, Devlin, Mackey and Socks as well as the absence of Captain Sam Routhier, Dan Yi and Rembert Browne, and the 3-2 record leaves us little to be worried about. We know what we have to work on, and we will.