Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Sectionals 08: unbowed, a bit bloodied
Finish: Champs, over El Diablo 16-14 in the finals; 6-0 record
After breezing through the first 5 games of the East Coast sectional tournament in Athens, GA, the members of Chain Lightning (the younger members, largely, as sometimes happens for this event) present for Game 6 came close to being part of team history – the first ever sectionals loss in the club’s 27 years.
Upstart El Diablo saw its own young talent gain confidence with some early success and held an 8-6 halftime lead and a 10-8 2nd half lead before Chain finally was able to ratchet up the pressure enough to go ahead 12-11. Even then, the game stayed close through till Chain, buoyed by a last-point layout block on defense by team elder (on this day, by some 10 years) statesman Rob Barrett, closed out the 16-14 win.
In the aftermath of the unexpectedly close match, El Diablo shouldn’t be ignored within the region, and Chain surely realized the banquet season has not begun just yet.
Also of note, rehabbing Paul Vandenberg lived up to his word in completing 1000 pushups for the day on Saturday (seen here sneaking some reps in during a break in the action:)
