Set Fire to the Pain Train
Saturday, Dartmouth went to sectionals in Durham New
Hampshire. It was the shortest tournament in Dartmouth’s history.
Our first game was against Middlebury, and we beat them.
Amherst Regional High School’s Spencer Diamond played well for Dartmouth, although ironically, he is also the Callahan nominee
for the Middlebury Pranksters. The rotation was fairly open. Our cutters sliced
the field better than a wakizashi through a watermelon.
Our next game was against UVM, and Dartmouth Pain Train was
thirsty to make up for their loss against them at New England Open. Young Alex
Crew ’08 was nice enough to come out and support the team. He went to the
ultimate spectating hill and saw to where his alumni donations were going.
Our offense set fire to the Pain Train, summarily dominating
the opponents and scoring goals. Old timers on the side line would note the
resemblance of our offense to that of Pres Day. It flowed and it was oiled.
“Ain’t nobody was dropping them discs on that grass.” Ian Adelstein got open at
will and hucked it as well. He threw a nice huck to Spencer. Matt Heffley
busted deep and caught several points, followed by his really aggressive, in
your face spikes. Ian Engler was able to break marks, and a couple of his
breaks against UVM marks enabled Preakness moments. Crew was intrigued.
Our offense this time, however, was more seasoned, more
battle hardened than the one we had in California. Said one wise Pain trainer: “The
O line of before was like an eight year old dominating his peers in Mario Kart;
our O line of Saturday was a well groomed professional, advancing his career,
no stranger to failure.”
Let me make it clear though, Dartmouth Defense United
actually brought dynamite to this game. Coach Brook made some tactical
defensive decisions that clogged the UVM’s offense. Spencer and Sottosanti
caught errant hucks on several occasions. Apollo had a mega layout on an in cut.
We beat UVM 15-10. We got the Crew stamp of approval (I think). Victory. Now
onto Regionals in less than 2 weeks.
