It was the perfect combination of hard play and wonderful spirit as local Ultimate teams gathered for the third week of league games Thursday at Ketchum's Atkinson Park.
Calm winds and clear skies greeted the Frisbee teams, and there were two good match-ups.
Wrapcity (2-1), fresh off of last week's clutch 15-14 sudden death win over Grumpy's, extended its win streak to two with a 9-6 victory over Board Bin (1-1). In the other game, Grumpy's (1-2) notched its first victory 9-6 at the expense of KB's (1-1).
Early on, Grumpy's looked strong against KB's. The high-octane Grumpy's attack relied on quick strikes and featured goal-scoring wizard Raleigh Grossbaum. His teammates Wes Southward and Todd Dunham used precision passes to reward Raleigh's hard cutting.
Grumpy's surged ahead 7-2 but KB's stormed back. Veteran KB's player Mike Connolly changed his team's defensive scheme to a zone. It turned out to be the answer to coverage problems and KB's shifted the momentum, scoring four unanswered goals to trail only 7-6. But Grossbaum settled Grumpy's down with a score and the winners added one more to hold off KB's by three.
On the far field, Wrapcity capitalized on two turnovers to lead 2-0 on the throws of Mike Payne, Dotty Sarchett and Sunny Poppler. They worked Bin's transition defense mercilessly, sending long strikes to speedster goal scorers Garrett Hildebrand and Evan Peebles.
Board Bin answered with a zone defense and forced a few turnovers tightening the score to 6-4. Bin rallied behind the hard cutting and athletic catches of Sage Pressman and the return of Board Bin Jim Slanetz's lethally accurate throws.
That's when Jordan Dale, in his last game with Wrapcity, found Hildebrand for one of his many scores for the night. Trailing 7-4, Board Bin could find no answers to the Wrapcity offense, and Wrapcity won going away by a 9-6 score.
On Thursday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m., it's Board Bin vs. Grumpy's and Wrapcity vs. KB's. There will be games on Monday, Aug. 10 and Monday, Aug. 17, then the league tournament is Thursday, Aug. 20 (semi-finals 6 p.m., finals 7:30 p.m.)
