In their third meeting of the 2011 season, Carleton defeated Colorado, 15-9. Put simply, Carleton was much more successful at maintaining its offensive efficiency while Colorado struggled to hang on to the disc at critical times.

Colorado's Austin Killien layout Ds Carleton's Jonah Herscu

Starting the game on defense, Carleton started on a high note when recent returner Ben Sullender laid out to block Colorado’s second throw. While Mamabird would get the disc back and score to go up 1-0, it would be their only lead of the game.

On the next point, the teams would trade turnovers until Carleton got on the board, 1-1. From there, they would go on a three-break defensive run. Colorado continued to run the same side stack pull play that put the disc on the downwind side almost immediately, and while both teams had trouble getting the disc off of the sideline, it was Carleton that made the first visible effort to keep the disc on the upwind part of the field. Also, while Colorado’s defense made Carleton’s offense work very hard for scores, CUT was content to whether the storm with dumps and swings rather than pressing too hard in the wind.

At 4-2 Carleton, Colorado would mount its own run to bring the score to 5-4, but that was as close as they would get. CUT took half 8-6 on a huck from Grant Lindsley to Alex Evangelides, putting an exclamation point on a great start that saw Lindsley using his ability to get open underneath to set up numerous deep shots and Christian Foster scoring multiple goals and applying strong pressure on the Colorado offense.

Out of half, Carleton left little doubt as to how the game would play out. After holding on offense, CUT went on yet another 3-0 run to take the score to 11-6, and at that point it was game over. Foster continued to up his play, contributing to CUT scores as the lead continued to build and Colorado continued to struggle.

Most of Mamabird’s roster looked a bit unstable in the wind, with overthrows and drops coming in bunches. Specifically, Jimmy Mickle’s around break throws were not as reliable as usual and Martin Freeman had trouble hanging onto discs that he usually brings in. Two positive points for Colorado were the play of Jack McShane, he remained steady as both a thrower and receiver, and the fact that the team was able to rotate it a number of its subs once the score looked out of reach. In what is sure to be a long and intense weekend, resting their top players’ legs certainly won’t hurt down the line. Finally, expect Colorado to play a much sharper game tomorrow morning, as most Mamabird players stayed for a while after the game to throw in the wind.