Breeze cannot close out Rochester

This past weekend on May 25 the Breeze hosted the Rochester Dragons for their second meeting. The Breeze looked good off of the first pull where  a huge huck to score came in the game’s first 20 seconds. The Dragons would go up two breaks in the first quarter and close it 3-5.

The Breeze really only had one good chance to get a break in the first quarter,but retreated on swings and got point blocked near their own goal line; giving Rochester a short field and easy opportunity to score.

The second quarter was full of throw aways and drops due to the windy conditions. Despite the conditions the Breeze got some flow going and put themselves back into the game outscoring Rochester 4 to 2.  The last 3 of those 4 points came on back to back, to back breaks.

DC had trapped Rochester on their own goal line around 0:30, down by one. The Breeze had  been using a two man double team to force a lot a bad throws off the sidelines in the wind and got another clutch take away on a high and floaty swing. This set up an easy gainer to tie it up at 7’s with 0:17 remaining.

It has come to be the norm that the winds are a huge factor in the Breeze games at Willie Stewart stadium. While at home, the Breeze have shown more confidence and and success while throwing in the wind and this game was no different. Throughout the first half Rochester had more of their throws fly out of the reach of their cutters due to the wind. While DC had more accuracy with their throws, their cutter’s had more drops. With the momentum swinging towards DC at the end of the first half it seemed clear that DC would be able to move ahead in the third.

The first two points of the third quarter were on serve and not even a minute had run off the clock yet. Then a marathon point lasting over five minutes spawned out of countless throwaways and drops from both teams.

Rochester was set to score at 6:20 with the disc on the Breeze’s goal line, but a incredible block gave the Breeze another chance. The intended receiver, Rochester’s number 88 Rob Smith, felt he had been fouled on the play and got into an argument with the official (block captured below). This resulted in a 20 yard penalty and caught the still transitioning Rochester defense by surprise. A power position, 50 yard backhand huck was kept alive by the same winds that had been haunting the deep game all day; allowing the Breeze to reclaim the lead 9-8 at 6:07. This was DC’s second lead of the game since going up 2-1. The third quarter finished on serve with the breeze up 11-10.

Photo by Pete Guion for UltiPhotos.com.

While Rochester had led the first half in throwaways and DC in drops the second half saw a complete reversal; now it was the open Rochester receivers dropping the disc and the Breeze handler’s who were losing throws to the wind and making some poor throwing decisions.

The Breeze defensive line began dabbling with some zone in the fourth quarter and were able to set up their sideline trap. Turn after turn came from this set up with a lot of throw’s coming from the Dragon’s number 10, Sean Donnellan. The Breeze would go up for the last time at 10:30 remaining, 12-11. The last tie of the game came on a DC break to make it 13’s with 5:43 left.

Back to back Rochester breaks on two forced turnovers would seal the game, comfortably up 3 with 2 minutes to go. DC  would score with just under a minute remaining, and had plenty of time to take the deep shots that had been working for them (4/5 on 40+ yard throws), but  they could not get any open in cuts as the clock was expiring. Rochester’s win evened the series at one apiece with a final score of 14-16.

DC had won the turnover battle with 29 drops and throwaways to the Dragon's 32, but failed to capitalize on that advantage. That and some poor decisions late in the fourth quarter cost them the match up.