Ultimate Frisbee completes third week of play

Gloria Austin, Special to The County
10 years ago

Ultimate Houlton has begun its third annual summer league after having a very successful last year and it was the first year of having businesses sponsor the teams. WHOU, one of the businesses who sponsored a team, did a live stream of the championship game! This year, the league has 36 members, the biggest membership yet, and many of them new faces. There are four community businesses each sponsoring a team. This year’s teams are: Team WHOU, Team McDonald’s, Team CPT and Team Bond Family Mercantile.

Houlton’s Ultimate Frisbee is in its third week of summer league play.
On Monday, July 6, . CPT went up against Bond Family Mercantile (BFM). Team WHOU and McDonald’s took a buy week due to scheduling conflicts.
In CPT and Bond Family Mercantile’s contest, the start of the game looked promising for both teams.
“Both teams put up a good rally and stayed tied for the first several points,” said Chris Rines, Houlton Ultimate Summer League organizer.
BFM has many young athletes with great stamina, however. This was one of their key advantages. At half time, score was 6-5, in favor of BFM. In the last half of the game, CPT put up a good fight, but with only one available substitute, they suffered the loss. Final score was 11-5, BFM.
On July 14, Houlton Ultimate Summer League met at Hodgdon Elementary School to play their third set of games. There were three games, one make-up game from week two, and two regular games for week three.
The week three games were played first. Match ups were between CPT and Team WHOU, and Team Bond Family Mercantile (BFM) and Team McDonald’s (McD’s).
The first game, CPT versus WHOU was a good battle.
“The players were fairly evenly matched up which made for a good competition,” said Rines. “Team CPT has more younger and athletic players which may have helped them out in the end. The score stayed fairly close together throughout the whole contest.”
Due to the league having three games in the evening, however, time quickly ran short. They played through the half time and reached a “short cap” with 15 minutes to go, which means two more points would be played. WHOU was losing steam quickly, as the younger, athletic CPT team found newborn strength. Finally, after Team CPT reached a score of seven to WHOU’s six, a “hard cap” was called, which means final point. CPT won the last point, making final score 8 to 6.
In the second game of the night, Team McD’s went up against Team BFM.
“This was the closest and most exciting game of the evening,” Rines noted.
Team BFM took the lead for the first half, however with McD’s trailing very close behind.
“Team BFM happened to draft all high schoolers making it the youngest team in the league,” said Rines. “Being young their athleticism shows.”
Before half time, McD’s was able to come out one-point ahead of BFM. For timely purposes, they also decided to play through the half. In the second portion of the game, BFM and McD’s stayed neck and neck.
“Both teams were making some mistakes, yet both were truly giving it their all,” Rines said.
When a “hard cap” was called yet again in a time crunch, there was one final point to play, and it was tied. In the last battle to win the game, Team McD’s was able to turn the disk over and win the possession, which resulted in the final point being scored with an added unfortunate injury by the scorer. Final score was McD’s 8, BFM 7.
The final game was the week two make up game between WHOU and McD’s.
“McDonald’s only female player received an injury in their last game and they were down a key player,” Rines explained. “Having just played a game, their energy was depleted, but they put on a great fight against Team WHOU.”
WHOU came out on top in the beginning, leading 3-2. However, even with an ever-dying energy, WHOU was able to catch up and win the lead coming into the half, 6-4.
In the last half, McD’s was able to find newborn strength and get an incredible extra four points over WHOU.
“In one epic battle for game-point, which lasted nearly 15 minutes, with many turnovers and miss passes from both teams, WHOU gained the extra point, for a moment, stealing the game winning point from McDonald’s,” explained Rines.
However, in the 15-minute point, energy was hard to come by from both teams, but more so for Team WHOU. In a quick two minutes, McD’s gained their second win of the night over WHOU making the final score 11-5.
Stay in tune with upcoming posts and events on Houlton Ultimate Summer League  Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ultimatehoulton.
The first match up was between Team CPT and Team McDonald’s. Team CPT is captained by Chris Rines. Team McDonald’s is captained by Justin Fereshetian, this year’s LP Miracle Mile winner. The game started off in favor of McDonald’s. It took a while for each team to get used to playing with one another. After the first half, CPT became more comfortable on the field playing with each other and ended up out-scoring McDonald’s in the second half. However, they came up short by just two points with McDonald’s posting their first win of the season.
In the second matchup, Team WHOU went up against Team Bond Family Mercantile (BFM). Team WHOU is captained by Julia Lunn, and Team BFM is captained by Seth Bond. This game was a very exciting, close game. The points kept going back and forth and remained tied throughout the whole game. In the end WHOU came up with their first win of the season.