Georgia realized one goal this weekend, while falling short of another.
Saturday
Georgia only played three games in short succession Saturday afternoon. Starting with University Tennessee-Chattanooga Swamp Donkey. Although Jojah came out with a little rust and number of unforced errors in the first half it was pretty obvious that Georgia had their opposition outmatched. Georgia gives up the first goal of the game and doesn't look back, taking half 7-1 and putting away the game 13-4. Highlights of the game include: Elliott Erickson completing a greatest to fellow rookie Mac Little. Tom Ball completes an upline assist... with his LEFT hand. Insanity.
Jojah followed up their romp of UTC with a match-up against a young program known as Georgia State Underground. This game started off fast for the dawgs with 3 straight breaks as it looked like the team was getting their form back, contesting every throw and cut on defense and moving the disc with great efficiency on offense. To Georgia State's credit, when Jojah got complacent they made them pay. But the bottom line was once again Jojah was too big and fast and they win another game 13-3. Highlights of the game include: Michael Young getting a shoulder high layout block and catching a goal to complete the bookends, Rookies generally doing work, and some guy from Georgia State wearing five fingers shoes while playing.
The last game of the day for UGA was against Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern was far and away the most athletic team Georgia played on Saturday, but the defensive came out attacking early and broke twice to start the game. Georgia Southern threw a curveball in the form of a zone defense that made the Georgia offense work hard to convert opportunities and they were able to break back to put the game back on serve before Hayden Fletcher Fartline, returning from injury, made several diving plays that helped Jojah break to take half 7-6. Georgia's offense locked it up and put the team in position to win the game on defense and the team breaks Southern one more time to win 13-11. Highlights of this game include: Fletcher gave Jojah a ton of effort and lifted the team through lulls in the team's intensity with insane layouts, Matt Bailey made probably the most insane catch of the tournament for the team in a trailing edge snag of a toss from Charlie Herrig for the score, and Birdo threw a Callahan.
By winning all of their games on Saturday, Georgia locked up a spot at the Regionals tournament and a meeting with Tennessee in the conference finals for the following morning.
Georgia slept well Saturday night after an excursion to Golden Corral. Matt Hess also loves wasabi more than any person should.
Easter Sunday!
Georgia slept in a little Sunday morning and got in a good long warm-up before their championship match-up with the University of Tennessee Agent Orange.
Tennessee was certainly the most talented opponent the team faced on the weekend, and first eight points of the game went to serve before Georgia could prevail to get the first break and go ahead 5-4, but the advantage didn't last for long as Tennessee got their break back to go ahead 6-5 and get back on serve. After converting the O-point, the dawgs seized an opportunity generated by Javid Aceil's defense and broke to take half.
Receiving in the second half Georgia converted again to go up 8-6 with a down field connection from Caleb "General Lee" Edwards to Matt Bailey. The defense feeling the mood came down hungry on Tennessee and forced a quick turnover and completed an easy fast break score to take the team's biggest lead of the game 9-6.
Tennessee locked it up and converted their next offensive possession and followed it with a strategic change and started throwing a zone defense at the Jojah offense. The zone proved to be super effective against the team's offense, partly because of Tennessee's execution and partly because of an absence of execution on the part of the offense. The next time Georgia scores is to tie the game at 10's though and after the defense failed to get a break back, Tennessee's zone did not and things were looking very dark for Georgia at a 12-10 score UT advantage.
Jojah rallied to execute the offensive possession and get the crucial break back to tie the game at 12's forcing a game into extra points. Georgia traded points to 14's and pulled to Tennessee for the final point of the game. The defense was tenacious and all down field cutters were shut down, with nowhere to go the UT handler had no choice put to force a dump pass that wasn't open courtesy of Elliott Erickson and Jojah was able to set up an offense on the goal line. Max Leonard looked off a couple of open cuts before tossing a flick to Elliott, but the two were unable to connect and Tennessee got the disc back. For all the teams remaining effort, it was for naught as Tennessee finished the game running a majority of their offense (as they had all game) through their captain Phil Brock.
For the second straight year Georgia finished second place in Sectional/Conference play heading into the regional tournament.
