Montreal 07

by Benny Mac

ECP’s first tournament of the year was a huge success. In what is becoming a tradition, ECP was able to bring up two teams, a team of returning players and a team of freshmen. After four hours of driving and half and hour of driving in circles in Montreal, we found our massive apartment. Just big to fit all forty of us, but just small enough that Pat and Adam could still snuggle. Our host was a lovely gentleman, an alum of Brandeis, and a friend of Graham Miller; we knew we’d get along. ECP went to bed drunk and early that night, except for Chad Harrington who roamed the streets of Montreal fucking mad French Canadian bitches with his Wu-Tang rap and his gangsta ways. The next day, ECP returners’ team came bright and early, a little hung over and thirsty for Canadian blood. Ranked fifth out of thirty teams, ECP swept through its first four games. Lunch was delicious, McGill cook everyone hamburgers, unfortunately they wouldn’t cook freshman Chelsea Tussing, who ECP had duct taped to chair. Lunch was followed by a layout contest, in which captain zippy had a great layout just missing the disc, and sophomore James Maher had a great flop on the ground just catching the disc. The fifth game for ECP was McMasters A team. ECP put up a good fight against McMasters, using our superior deep game, i.e. Gabe Webster, sporting his new Mohawk, and Big Steve. But in the end ECP couldn’t get the D’s on their well-practiced horizontal and their impressive handling. ECP’s freshmen team had though day. Led by freshman Duncan Cleary, the freshmen went 0-5. Losing to much more experienced teams; the freshmen slowly learned the meaning of chilly handling. That night our lovely host gave us his apartment, his only rule, “fuck my neighbors, they’re assholes.” So we started ECP started the night was a spontaneous ECP dance party, lead by DJ’ed by Rich Mochia, and the first ever ECP rap battle between Chad Harrington and DJ Scrizzle, who just happened to show up in Montreal. After pissing off the neighbors, ECP decided take over McGill party at local nightclub. After successfully sneaking in Duncan, spirit captain Adam Kowalski led ECP as they took over the dance floor, while spirit captain Patrick Donoghue keep ECP night and drunk by buying over 60 dollars in tequila shots.

The next ECP made it to the fields a little less bright and a little less early. The first game for returners was against the top seeded team University of Quebec at Montreal. As the injured Adam Kowalski pointed out, “they are not speaking English! Recognize!” UQUAM soundly defeated ECP 15-4, but inside sources tell us that they went to bed at 9:00pm and didn’t drink. The freshmen team had a much easier day, still losing 0-3, but playing the other teams who did poorly on the first day. They lost their first two games, and had a close run against Middlebury’s C team, made up of all freshmen. ECP was up 2-5, when the freshmen with the help of sophomores James Maher and Ben McIntosh handling and Dan Schleicher playing deep-deep, who get 6 d-blocks including a layout D, all in one point. But Middlebury’s Merry Pranksters came out very strong in the second half, and scored 9 points in a row, winning the game 15-8. ECP returners won its second and third game. The third game against Montreal alum, a club team from the Montreal area, was by far ECP best game of the tournament. Sophomore Hannah Schoenbach caught a deep throw from Michael Hardy causing the sideline to burst out cheering. Later in the game, Rich Moccia hammered it to the home side of the endzone, and sprinting from the other side of the endzone, Steve Walker lays out and catches the throw. ECP left Montreal feeling strong and proud, with the A team placing 5th and the B team improving greatly showing us that ECP is both strong now and will be in the future.