Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Who the #@$! is El Diablo?!?
The other big surprise coming out of South Open Regionals this past weekend was El Diablo, out of Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia. Many spectators expected Ronin out of Florida to capture the third bid to Nationals. In the end, El Diablo came out on top.
We caught up with Mike Nash of El Diablo to hear more about their weekend and find out more about his relatively unknown team.
Last weekend in Austin, TX, El Diablo was able to scratch and claw their way through the backdoor in the tough 3-bid, 16-team format. After a fairly quick opening game against Turbodog, Diablo faced the 5th seed, Ludicrous Speed, in quarters. Ludicrous Speed is a club team formed by players in and around the University of Arkansas program, and a team which we had never seen before. Knowing that the losers of quarters had two more backdoor games on Saturday (lasting until 9:30pm), we knew the game was a must-win if we wanted to advance to Nationals on Sunday. As such, we treated the game like the finals—bringing our full array of defensive and offensive looks. In a slight upwind/downwind game, we were able to go up comfortably 13-7 before finally closing out the game 15-11.
Our next game was against Chain Lightning, who no doubt wanted to exact some punishment for their near-loss against us at Sectionals. Chain came out fast and took advantage of offensive miscues with quick deep strikes to take the lead 4-0. After the slow start, we traded the next 4 points to half, down 8-4. At halftime, we decided to conserve our offense a bit to prepare for the potential 4-game day on Sunday. Chain was very hungry and continued to take advantage of mistakes until the game ended 15-6.
Sunday began with a 5:45am wake-up call, as warm-ups began in the dark Texas morning at 6:45 for a 7:30 game with Grit. We have never faced the Dallas opponent, but we were able to take them out of their comfort zone by denying their swings and playing a flat-mark until mid-field to prevent their hucks. We took the game 15-10 and headed over to see the end of the Ludicrous Speed/Ronin game two fields away. In a very exciting game with lots of deep throws, Ludicrous Speed brought a zone defense at double-game point that forced a dropped hammer 20 yards away from the end zone. One incredible catch later, the boys from Arkansas had secured a major upset.
While Chain played Doublewide in the finals, the four remaining teams battled in the backdoor. We dispatched Ludicrous Speed easily 15-6, while Ronin was entrenched in another tight game – this time with Grit. Dallas held the lead most of the game, but was broken near the end to bring it to double-game point. After two turns by both teams, Grit proved to be the more patient team and punched the disc into the endzone. Meanwhile, Doublewide had defeated Chain in a 17-16 affair; that set up a rematch between us and Chain for second place while Grit and Ludicrous Speed fought to advance to the final game-to-go.
We decided to attack early in the Chain game and hoped that they would be caught off guard after a tough finals loss. Quickly, the game was tied 5-5; however, Chain awoke and amped up the defensive pressure to take half 8-6. Again, at halftime our captains convened and decided our best shot to advance to Nationals would be in the 3rd place game, so we decided to rest our offense and allow our defense to take some upwind reps. It would not have mattered, however, as Chain was not to be denied and played with some furious defensive passion to close the game out easily in the second half.
Finally, we had arrived to the final game-to-go, the game which we planned to be in all year, except with a different opponent. We would face Ludicrous Speed for a third time, and despite my comments otherwise, the outcome of the game was not in doubt. Ludicrous Speed relied on a short rotation and could not handle our defensive pressure in their 4th game of the day. Even with some sloppy play towards the end, we were able to close out the weekend with a 15-8 victory and a mob scene in the middle of the field complex.
Our team runs primarily horizontal stack offense, with occasional side-stack looks. Eric Olivier and Stephen Salley are the primary cutters, with Michael Spear providing the truest deep shots. On defense, expect Ryan Archibald and Wes Hall lined up against opponent’s main cutters, with Ben Slade providing explosive offense after turns. We are young, with an average age of 24 and 7 players involved in the college series next spring. However, we are continuing to improve at every tournament, and the trip to Nationals will be extremely valuable for future recruiting.
El Diablo’s victory is a breath of fresh air in a club scene dominated by a handful of entrenched elite teams. We’ll see if they continue to shake things up in Sarasota.