Maine @ Maple Hill Preview

On March 1, 2014, Team Maine travels to Maple Hill DGC in Leicester, MA.  Following a big home win against Wickham, Maine looks to finish out its road record at 2-1 on the season.

"This won't be easy.  Maple is a team with remarkable depth and an enviable amount of home-course experience," Head Coach Jason Toothaker says, "I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a tough matchup for us.  We'll play aggressive, and we'll play smart.  Doubles will be immensely important; both in terms of matchups and execution on the course."

Frozen tundra: Maple Hill DGC Hole 1

Maine won their last match by a large margin, despite only being ahead by only one point after their singles round, thanks to a 15-2 shellacking in doubles.

"We had a blast in doubles against Wick. We knew it was close, and we needed to impose our will in doubles to pull out the win," said Brendan Johnson, "Chris [LeClair] and I did our part to make that happen.  Luckily, so did the rest of the team.  To beat Maple Hill, we're all going to need to do the same thing, albeit at their home course."

Considered to be one of the most scenic and challenging courses in the country, The course at Maple Hill is ranked #1 in Massachusetts, and is the home to the Maple Hill Open, presented by Vibram.

Team Maple Hill last faced Team Maine (then Team pHill) in March of 2012 at Pleasant Hill Disc Golf Course in Scarborough, ME.  Maine went on to win by a large margin, following a 12-0 doubles round.  "I know some of these guys are still thinking about the doubles skunking," said Toothaker, "that loss eliminated Maple from the B-Pool finals.  They are a better team now, and will have more than 12 players to throw at us.  Should be a good match."

Team Maple's heavy-hitters include (PDGA ratings in parenthesis) Justin White (952), Shaun LaForce (951), Greg Aucoin (963), Aaron Ala (rating unavailable), David Hoey (948), and Kevin Gardner (995).

Maine Whips Wick, 23.5-9.5; Dominant Doubles Preserves #1 Ranking in New England

On Sunday, January 26th, Team Maine--working with a mere 1 point lead going into their doubles round against Team Wickham Park--pulled out a blowout win following a 15-2 trouncing in the second round.  Despite the sun, temperatures held in the single digits, with wind gusts topping out near 30 mph.

Sean "Beefy" Stanton drives hole 18

 "The weather was an equalizing factor," said Coach Jason Toothaker following the huge home win at Woodland Valley Disc Golf Course in Limerick, ME. "Once the wind calmed a bit, our course knowledge and experience gave us back that edge we have come to expect at home, especially on the Black Bear course." 

Team Wickham's Jesse Carrieri

To say Maine's doubles dominance at home is remarkable would be an understatement.  Through 2 home matches against top teams, Maine has outscored its opponents by a mind-blowing 27-4 tally in doubles rounds.


Maine's Jason Dore bested the previously undefeated Jasin Bayer of Team Wick by a 2&1 score in singles.  Brendan Johnson upset the 1000-rated Jesse Carrieri by a 2&1 score as well.  Both of Team Maine's women, Sam Pease and Nicole "Pickle" Dionisio came up with singles wins against Kristi Bayer.

In doubles, Maine's Sean "Beefy" Stanton and Jacob Fowlie as well as the tandem of Darby O'Leary and Jason Dore tied for the hot round of the day, shooting 43's.


"We're perfectly comfortable slaughtering our competition up here," remarked GM Jim Tufts after the match, "then we send them back home to tell the tale.  It's our year, and other teams should be rightfully scared of us."

Bryan Jordan threading the needle on hole 4

Team Maine and NASA are tied for first in the A-Pool, both with 3-1 records.  Maine has taken 63 percent of available points this year, compared to NASA's 50.  Maine also has the head-to-head advantage, following their home blowout of NASA in the first match of the season.

(All photos Courtesy Dave Sage)









Results: 

Singles:
Brendan Johnson def Jesse Carrieri 2&1
Caleb Biggers def Marvin Manalo 3&2
Mike Cole def Shawn Mullen 1Up
Casey Poussard def Abel Rodrigues 3&2
Jon Sellers def Nicholson Willard 4&3
Jimmy Bouffard def Jason Johnson 5&4
Jason Dore def Jasin Bayer 2&1
Sam Pease def Kristi Bayer 5&4

Nick Blouin pushes Shane Peters

Clayton Davidson def Chris LeClair 3&1
Dan Hale def Ben Dunlap 9&7
Steve Ditter def Mitch Blodget 1up
James Lane def Jon Borenstein 1up
Jack Nickel def Sean Stanton 2&1
Andrew Tabaczynski def Bryan Jordan 3&2
Mark Lyons def Jacob Fowlie 2&1

Maine 8.5
Wickham 7.5


Doubles:
Brendan/CLeC def JJ/LiCk 48-50
Beefy/Fowlie def Shane/Hale 43-45
Darby/JDore def Jesse/Marvin 43-46
Cole/Jordan def Claydog/Mark 44-47
Borq/Pouss def Lane/Abel 46-47
JimmyB/TBo def Willard/Ditter 48-49
Sellers/Borenstein def Jasin/Tabz 47-48
Pickle def Kristi 64-66 (1pt)

Mullen/Nickel def Caleb/Gippy 46-49
Maine 15
Wickham 2

-------------------
Final Score:
Maine 23.5
Wickham 9.5

Cran-Buried: Team Maine Takes Tough Road Loss to Rival Cranbury Park

Maine lost a 10-9 singles advantage in the second round to fall to rival Cranbury Park on Saturday, December 7th at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, CT. Team Cran improved to a lifetime record of 22-0 at home, and Team Maine fell to lifetime 4-4 on the road. Despite the loss, Team Maine is still ranked #1 of the 8 teams in the New England Team Challenge A-Pool division.

"Tough loss, we had a lot of close matches that didn't go our way," said Coach Jason Toothaker following the loss. "Team Cran is nasty at home.  We gave it a hell of an effort, but these guys are rock solid on their own turf."

Jon Sellers takes an upshot from his knees on hole 15

Highlights for Team Maine included an improbable comeback singles win for Jacob Fowlie against 1000-rated pro golfer Jeff Cahill.  Fowlie was down 4 holes through 9 and edged out Cahill 1up to take the match.  In what could be considered the singles heavyweight bout of the year, Team Maine's top player Jason Dore defeated Cran's ringer Bobby Cowperthwait, who earlier in 2013 defeated many of the worlds top pros at the Greater Hartford Disc Golf Open (Wickham Park) in Manchester CT; including Paul McBeth, Will Schusterick, Devin Frederick, Paul Ulibarri, Jeremy Koling, and Geoff Bennett.  Dore won his match 1up against Cowperthwait.

In doubles, Jimmy Bouffard and Dave T-Bo defeated Greg Tavolacci and Whit Cooper with a tie for the team-best score of 48.  Darby O'Leary and Jason Dore also shot a 48, but lost in the final hole to the duo of Cowperthwait and Harry Green.

Players walking out prior to singles round.  Gallaher Mansion statue in foreground.

Results:

Jacob Fowlie def Jeff Cahill
Nick Blouin def Greg Tavolacci
Mike Cole def Whit Cooper
David Gipson def Dan Tressler
Jon Sellers def Hector Melendez
Brendan Johnson def Dustin Dimilo
Caleb Biggers def John Cooper
Sean Stanton def Bård Soleng
Jason Dore def Bobby Cowperthwait
Darby O'Leary def Dave Jones

Amanda Korner def Nicole Dionisio
Toby Korner def Jason Toothaker
Brad Schott def Dave Thibeault
Jeff Tavo def Casey Poussard
Harry Green def Jim Tufts
Mario Rodriguez def Mitch Blodget
Chris Scofield def Ben Dunlap
Matt Buono def Chris LeClair
Derek Libby def Jimmy Bouffard

SINGLES
Cran 9
Maine 10

 
Mario/Dustin def Mitch/Sellers 48-53
Libby/Tressler def BennyD/Gippy 50-51
Mini/Dome def Brendan/Tufts 50-50 (playoff)
Bård/Jeff T def Beefy/Fowlie 47-51
Bobby/Harry def Darby/Dore 47-48
Amanda/Jones def Cole/Pease 55-56

Bouffard/T-Bo def Greg/Whit 48-55
Caleb/Poussard def Toby/Hector 49-53
CLeC/Blouin def Brad/Scofield 49-50

DUBS
Cran 12
Maine 6

FINAL
Cran 21
Maine 16