Photo by Alan Bloodgood
JUNE 25, 2025
By Kyle Turnbaugh
In week ten, the DC Breeze (4-4) will be tasked with defending Carlini Field from the Montreal Royal (3-5), a team that the Breeze fell to on the road earlier in the season. The Breeze had a rough time in Montreal, dealing with fatigue and injuries piling up, and the Royal took full adavnatge, overwhelming the Breeze by running deep time and time again on the road to victory. However, the circumstances are much different this time: the Breeze are fresh off a bye week, and while they will be missing a few players due to U-24 Worlds, a couple stars who can make a major impact will be returning for the Breeze.
For Montreal, it has been a season of highs and lows. Most will agree that the expectations for the Royal were pretty modest after losing star player Tobe Decraene in the offseason, but to their credit, the Royal have had some excellent moments throughout the season. They had a three-game home stand where they won all the games, defeating New York, DC and Philadelphia, but outside of that, they have struggled, as they are 3-1 at home but 0-4 on the road. Montreal ranks among the top teams in the league for huck percentage and total hucks thrown, meaning that the DC defense, which has struggled throughout the season in generating turns, will have to be smart on the marks and force difficult throws. While some teams like New York and Toronto use their size to win in the deep space, Montreal trades that for speed with Quentin Bonnaud and Philipe Le Bourdais. DC’s AJ Merriman, who is used to contesting jump balls in the deep space, will instead have to chase down the Royal’s speedsters. DC will have Alexandre Fall and Charlie McCutcheon, who is returning from injury to keep up with Montreal’s faced-paced offense.
On DC’s side of the disc, there is lots of room for improvement. The Breeze offense sits in the middle of the league statistically, but struggled badly last time against Montreal, only holding 54% of the time and converting 50% of chances in the redzone. The Breeze offense has had a handful of excellent displays over the season, such as on the road against Carolina and Toronto and at home against New York. Unfortunately, they have had just as many bad days, including the last matchup between these two teams. DC’s offense has been led by Rowan McDonnell, Jacques Nissen and Tyler Monroe, but it seems like the Breeze may be without two of those players. Nissen is out, and Monroe seems unlikely to play after an injury against New York. This means that the Breeze will have to ask even more from handlers Andrew Roy and Thomas Edmonds to replace Nissen in that quarterback role and that Aidan Downey will likely continue to play on the O-line as he did last game. Although the losses may seem significant, the O-line is getting one major reinforcement in Christian Boxley, as the star cutter returns for his first game since the home loss to Boston. Although the absences are significant, DC will hope that the combination of Boxley’s return and being forced to shake things up a bit will breathe some life into what has been an inconsistent offense.
While the offense has had good moments and bad, the defense has really struggled for most of the season, ranking towards the bottom of the league in blocks and break percentage. When the Breeze met the Royal in Montreal, the defense had no answer for the speed of Montreal’s offense, with the Royal completing nine of 11 huck attempts and the Breeze defense only generating four breaks, as opposed to Montreal's nine. For this game, the Breeze D-line will also be without their leader in blocks and one of their crucial handlers, as Miles Grovic and Isaac Lee are both representing Team USA at the U-24 World Ultimate Championship. On the bright side, Moussa Dia and McCutcheon are back from injury, giving DC more size and speed on defense to try and shut down Montreal's offense.
The Breeze need a favorable result in order to stay on track for the playoffs, and for that to happen, the offense will need to deal with missing key personnel, and the defense will need to have the legs to keep up with Montreal. The Royal will be without a number of key players, including cutter Jeremy Hill and defender Julien Bernat, among others. Considering Montreal’s struggles on the road and their considerable absences, the Breeze will hope that they can defend their home turf and keep themselves on the right track to make the playoffs. The Royal currently hold the tiebreaker over the Breeze, so DC needs to win this matchup by six or more goals.
Catch the DC Breeze, as they look to continue their playoff push and fend off the Montreal Royal at Carlini Field in Washington, D.C. on Friday, June 27. First pull goes up at 7:00 PM ET. Tickets available at thedcbreeze.com and streaming live on watchUFA.tv.
