Mid Season Retrospective: Part 2

After a chilly weekend in columbus, the gobies were ready for what would turn out to be the biggest tournament of the season. Case's home tournament, NorthCoast saw the gobies split into A and B teams. This is Case A's story (much love to my b-team brethern though, I was with you last year)

North Coast

Case Western:15 Cincinnati: 7Though this wasn't quite the Cincinnati team that case would see later in the season, the Gobies came out strong against Cinci, and rolled off several breaks in a row before ceding a point. The gobies took care of business early.

Case Western: 12 Calvin 10
The wind decided to pick up against an athletic team from Calvin College. After pulling ahead initially, Case trailed for most of the game, and Calvin took half 8-7. Zone defense was the name of the game. Calvin threw a tight zone against Case, took issue to quite a few of our travel calls. When the goby zone made its debut against Calvin, double teams were called once again. There were even a few heated disputes over the intricacies of the rule book. Kevin Pochatila was seen in a rare moment of hot headedness, and was overheard to say "i can react to whatever the fuck i want to" after some of the finer points of cup-collapsing were discussed. Both sides cooled off, and case eventually pulled away for the win. The highlight of the game, and possibly the tournament was Jason Williams' layout Callahan to break Calvin, and essentially put the game away

Case Western: 12 Bowling Green: 9
Case Was still riding high off of the excitement of the Calvin Game, the gobies failed to bring the intensity against BG. The penguins brought a collection of alumni, and luckily case was able to hold off the wily veterans long enough to secure the victor

Case Western A: 15 Case Western B: 3
Several members of Case B played well. Old man lehman led the charge and helped case B score 3 points. Strong efforts by colin morlock and justin michel were seen as well

Day 2

Case Western A: 13 Shawnee State: 11

Shawnee was a first year team with a "few" pickups from the cleveland club scene. Understandably, they were more than a challenge for the gobies. However, Case was beyond pumped for this game. Not a single goby was ready to surrender their undefeated Northcoast record to shawnee, and it showed. Several early breaks, along with solid deep D's by jason williams and jared VanLandingham set the tone for the Case, and the gobies rushed the field after nearly every point

Case Western A: 13 Kent State: 10

This would be the "game of the tournament". Unfortunately, Case Went down big to a tough Kent zone run. I believe kent took half 8-3 However, the gobies got their stuff in order, and won the second half by a margin of 10-2. Solid play by mike macdonald, and former captain alex hunt (the cupbreaker), along with clutch d's all around helped stir the comeback. The best sight of the weekend were the crowds of gobies at the line itching to play and get a D.

Case Western A: 9 Ohio University:15

The only loss of the weekend came in the finals. OU certainly looked like one of the best teams in the section with their split team performance at NorthCoast. However, Kevin Vick was a bright spot, with approximately 4 skying scores which typically featured him beasting over a crowed of OU players. Almost all the scores took place right in front of his girlfriend. I think it goes without saying that case's big man also scored some major points with the ladies with his high altitude showing

Overall Northcoast was a great tournament, and showed some encouraging results. As always, much could be improved, but it was one of Case's best Northcoast showings in recent years

-Kevin