Recap
Gambits Cruise Through Utah
The Crimson Cup started out as a very closely contested tournament to open the 2014-15 season, but as Saturday wore on, spectators were left with a tournament that didn’t shed much light on the upcoming season.
The Crimson Cup started out as a very closely contested tournament to open the 2014-15 season, but as Saturday wore on, spectators were left with a tournament that didn’t shed much light on the upcoming season. A fraction of the Los Angeles Gambits participated at Salt Lake City while still managing to handily defeat teams they would have crushed at full strength. University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and Boise State University (BSU) weren’t expected to be high level teams, but both played unexpectedly well; Northern Arizona University brought a team of mostly rookies and left many of its established veterans in Flagstaff, Arizona; and Utah Crimson Elite (UCE) entered the tournament as an unknown entity. When the Gambits hoisted the beautiful multi-ringed championship trophy at the end of the tournament, the biggest question was whether UNC and BSU had become legitimate contenders or if the Gambits just looked good defeating lower tier teams.
Pool A
The Utah Crimson Elite opened the official season when it mercilessly crushed the Colorado State University Boggarts (CSU) 190*-20 as expected, as Daniel Howland outscored CSU singlehandedly by catching the snitch. The NAU Narhwals (NAU) weren’t a much better matchup for CSU as the Narwhals shut out the Southwest team to the tune of 200*-0. The pool culminated in a highly promoted battle between UCE and NAU with a first round bye in the double elimination bracket on the line. The match was a close affair, with Utah holding the upper hand throughout most of the game. The Crimson Elite clung to 20 and 30 point leads, but finally started pushing out of snitch range near the end of the game. UCE led 100-50 and finally caught the snitch after nearly a half hour of game play to defeat NAU 130*-50 and win Pool A.
Pool B
The Gambits only brought two female players, Alyssa Burton and Caylen McDonald, to Crimson Cup, but no one would have been able to tell by the way Burton and McDonald played or by the final scores. Initially, though, UNC gave Los Angeles an unexpectedly close matchup. De’Vaughn Gamlin was a major scoring factor early for UNC, but the entire team contributed to a back-and-forth matchup with the Gambits. UNC took an early 10-0 lead after stopping the Gambits on their first three possessions until Andrew Murray tied the game with the first goal in Gambit franchise history. UNC responded immediately with a tiebreaking goal, but Tony Rodriguez scored back-to-back goals to give the Gambits their first lead, 30-20. After finding themselves bludgerless on numerous occasions, UNC finally retained control of the bludgers and Rodriguez kept the Gambits in contention with numerous long shots that Gamlin and UNC seemed to prefer allowing over drives. With the game tied at 50-50, Gamlin received a yellow card, and the Gambits scored immediately. Murray started dominating the game dodging numerous beats and scoring multiple times pushing the Gambits lead to 110-60 before the snitch was released. Gamlin intercepted one of Rodriguez’s flashy passes and scored to bring the game to 110-70 and keep UNC in contention. Ultimately, Alex Richardson ended the game with a spectacular snitch grab, giving the Gambits a 150*-70 win. The Gambits and UNC both defeated BSU by wide margins to close out Pool B. The Gambits received a first round bye as pool victors.
Bracket Play
In the first round of the winner’s bracket, both BSU and CSU played stronger than expected. CSU pulled a suicide snitch grab to lose by the small margin of 20 against in-state opponent UNC (100-80*). BSU had a good showing against NAU, and the Abraxans could have been within snitch range if chaser Casey Thompson hadn’t missed two close shots. NAU ultimately defeated BSU 130*-50.
The Gambits dismantled the young NAU squad in the second round by a lopsided score of 140*-30. Meanwhile, the Crimson Elite looked poised to win its third straight game, leading UNC 90-70, until its opponents grabbed the snitch to win 100*-90 and advance to the winners’ bracket semifinals.
The tournament hosts’ woes continued in the elimination bracket. The Crimson Elite should have had no problem defeating the winless BSU team, but again the team had only a 20 point lead when the snitch was on pitch. Stewart Driflot made his mark on the Crimson Cup when he eliminated the home team with a snitch grab that gave BSU and the Northwest its first win of the tournament, which will certainly be regarded as a milestone in years to come for the young Northwest club.
“Our win against Crimson Elite really shows our strength as a team and our ability to adapt to our competition,” said BSU Coach Kym Couch. “We're working with a brand new team and the difference in that team between game one and game five are night and day. I couldn't be more proud of my team and I can't wait to see our further improvement put to the test.”
None of Utah’s opponents were able to outscore the team in quaffle points, but back-to-back upsets gave it an earlier exit than any sane person would have predicted. Ben Reuling and Rebecca Lewis both played extremely well throughout the tournament and were the base of a quality defense. This should give Utah hope that it can grow to be a very competitive team, but it seems that the team is suffering from the lack of an established seeker to close out tight games. NAU meanwhile dispatched CSU 140*-20 to eliminate the Boggarts and advance to face BSU in the second round of the elimination bracket.
The Gambits pummeled UNC 210*-40 in a rematch from pool play and advanced to the championship looking like the tournament favorites. Still, there was more quidditch to be played, and BSU looked like a reborn team. Fueled by their impressive upset, the Abraxans jumped out to a 30-20 lead over NAU in the teams’ second meeting. That would be the last time BSU scored, though, and NAU took control with a 50-30 lead when the snitch returned to the pitch. Veteran Narwhal Steven Gruenewald made an amazing diving snitch grab to advance to the semifinals, and the Abraxans prepared to return to Boise with a very optimistic outlook. Thompson was a standout BSU player making strong drives and smart passes throughout the tournament.
UNC demonstrated its earlier success was not a fluke by taking a 90-20 lead over NAU in the semifinal match. However, NAU demonstrated resilience and scored seven unanswered goals to tie the game at 90. The game was a back-and-forth affair after that, with UNC taking another large lead at 120-90 before NAU rallied back for a 180*-140 victory with a snitch catch by Bryan Mugge sending them into the finals against the Gambits. Scott Rice had an outstanding weekend at beater for UNC; his aggressive play often made him as valuable as two beaters.
The Gambits utilized a great strategy to combat the fact they had only two female players who were tiring. In the championship game, McDonald played chaser and stayed at her opponents’ hoops throughout the game letting the Gambits execute a successful cherry picking system on multiple occasions. The Gambits did not allow the finals to be interesting as they eased through a 200*-50 victory over the Narwhals, even scoring easily against bludger control. During its run to the championship game, NAU received outstanding performances from Gruenewald at all positions and from rookie female chaser Justine Heisley-Taylor.
While no one would be surprised by such dominance from a full strength Gambit roster, it is very promising that the Gambits had such a strong performance at Crimson Cup with only a fraction of the team. Burton showed how skilled she is with her hands at beater making great beats and catches, Rodriguez and Murray dominated the whole weekend with the help of an offensively aggressive beater line, and Richardson grabbed five out of the six snitches he attempted. Michael Richardson, the younger brother of Alex Richardson, also made key offensive contributions in his debut tournament.
"We went into the tournament slightly nervous about going with such a reduced roster, but after a game or two we realized how many great players our team truly has,” said Gambits captain Steve DiCarlo. “We had to try out a few new strategies to make up for our lack of subs, and those strategies ended up working perfectly,"
However, the Gambits still have yet to show they are an elite team. With Utah having many new players and NAU leaving some of its strongest players behind, it’s hard to tell if UNC and BSU have become good teams or if they benefited from facing teams that are weaker than the rest of the West; therefore, it’s actually hard to comment on the level of competition the Gambits faced. While the Gambits showed they will be a strong team, we’ll have to wait for another tournament to see if they are truly elite.
