Quote:
Originally Posted by BigBen
This was in Quarter Final 1-2 Replay, video is on youtube with the inbound at about 1:56. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=P...tailpage#t=115)
I was part of the reset crew fielding balls behind the goals and was catching 254 shots. The sound of this ball bouncing off the plexiglass was surprisingly loud. You can even hear it on the youtube feed if your sound is turned up a little. In the video you can even see the plexiglass wobble for awhile afterwards.
To say the crowd went nuts is an understatement! |
Yeah, I was coaching from the sideline with a direct view of his eyeline. That moment easily goes right up there with the top memories I'll have from this season. The goal for defending them was always to try to beat them to their spots, at worst you slow them down getting there, and try to make it so they are oriented in an undesirable way when they do eventually get there. Basically, make them work for every step in the sequence. As an alliance, we got all of those boxes checked...yet, it still didn't matter. That was a truly indefensible and jaw dropping moment.
To top it off, the whole thing played out like slow motion in my head as I had the perfect vantage point of the HP eyes and kind of saw what he was going to do before he did it.
In my brain, the sequence broke down like this:
- Everyone's fighting to the spot and I was thrilled with our alliance's defensive effort and positioning as the Poofs were exactly the opposite orientation that they wanted/needed to be for the inbound (or so I foolishly thought). All of that basically equated to a series of "Yay Blue!", "Go Bees!", "Make them work for it!", "Keep the pressure on!" thoughts running on a loop at that moment. That line of thinking quickly hit an abrupt interupt.
- As the Bees kept the pressure on and bumped the Poofs closer to the low goal at that orientation, I saw the HP glance at the wall. Everything in my head came to a screeching halt. Then, all I could think was "He's not thinking what I think he's thinking...is he?"
- As he kind of quickly pump faked once, I saw his eyes look back to the wall. My mind quickly transitioned to a "Good lord, he IS thinking what I think he's thinking!" and then emphatically to "HE'S GOING GLASS WITH IT!?!?!"
- Then he hurls that ball against the wall, thunders it off and rattles it home. They score the 40 a second or two after. Pardon the pun, but my mind just went "Poof".
That should have easily made the top 10 plays on SportCenter that night. Absolutely amazing moment.