HOULTON, Maine — Ultimate Houlton has announced the completion of the first two games of the Houlton Ultimate Summer League (HUSL) season, held last Tuesday evening, June 21, 2016.
Going on its fourth season, this year there are 32 participants divided into four teams. The teams will have official names once sponsors are in, but right now they hold the names of Red Team, Blue Team, Purple Team, and Yellow Team.
HUSL is hosting their games on the old football practice field belonging to the Maliseets, on Bell Road. The terrain is smooth and also has old wooden benches for spectators to come and watch comfortably.
At 6 p.m. the first game commenced with Red Team, captained by Houlton’s Lucas Anderson, going up against the Blue Team, captained by Caribou’s Bradly Burlock. Red got off to a good start making the first two goals, but Blue soon made its first goal to answer back. Red kept the lead, but Blue always followed by a point or two.
Just before half, Blue made 2 points in a row to tie 5-5. Both teams only had five members, which meant all members on the field at once with no subs. The two teams agreed to take an early halftime break due to the heat of the sun and hard play. Afterward, both teams proved how much they wanted the first win. Red earned the first point to keep its lead.
Just after, at 45 minutes into the game, a “soft cap” was called to inform players that time was running up. Soft cap in Ultimate means that with time drawing near, the game will end when a team reaches two points higher than the current leading goal. Since Red was leading 6-5, the game would end when a team reached 8 points. Blue was able to come out with 2 quick goals, tying it 7-7. Both teams fought hard for that final goal, and Red ended up coming out on top with their very first win of the season.
The second game followed at 7 p.m., Purple Team, captained by Chris Rines, verses Yellow Team, captained by Justin Fereshetian of Mars Hill. Yellow Team came out strong scoring the first six goals for a shutout at the break.
Purple was missing a few key players and struggled to make offensive gains against the defense of the Yellow Team. However, after halftime, Purple was able to finally make some plays which resulted in three goals to try cut the lead in half. Purple member Connor Grant had a huge hand in defensive plays to contribute their team’s rebound. Although that gave their team some confidence moving forward, Yellow showed their dominance by scoring four back-to-back goals, keeping their lead of 9-3. With Purple struggling to keep up, and able to make a few more goals, it wasn’t enough to defeat Yellow Team in this first week. Yellow Team won 11-5.
The league is hoping more community members will join the sidelines in the weeks to come. The athleticism and fast-pace games keep it interesting to watch. Games are played every Tuesday night. Rescheduled games will be posted on Ultimate Houlton’s Facebook page.
