Photo Credit: The Pro Photography Group

By Noam Gumerman

The Carolina Flyers extended their win streak to three games in a row with their first win over the Atlanta Hustle of the year, 21-19 at home this past weekend, in another game impacted by weather delays. Allan Laviolette and Rutledge Smith led the Flyers to victory with seven assists and six goals, respectively. But the fans who stuck it out to the end were rewarded with the first win at home on the year, while the Flyers moved to 3-4 on the season so far.

The Flyers set the tone early, applying tons of pressure and forcing a coverage sack throwaway on just the second throw of the game for the Hustle, and converting the short field opportunity to start the game with a break. The Flyers slowly built a multi-goal lead late into the first half before the first weather delay hit. Storms were rolling through Durham all day, impacting the PUL’s Raleigh Radiance home game earlier that afternoon, and the Flyers game later into the evening. The delay lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, and unlike the previous times these teams played, the Flyers got the better of the Hustle immediately following the delay. 

A blown break opportunity for Atlanta meant that when the Flyers eventually held on the longest point of the day, they extended their lead to four, rather than see it cut to two, at 10-6 with just a few minutes left in the half. Each team held and that was the margin heading into an abbreviated halftime.

The second half was a constant push and pull between these two rivals. The Hustle would close the gap by a few points, and the Flyers would extend the lead. The lead fluctuated between two and five for most of the second half before the Flyers looked like they were clear to coast to the finish line with a five-point 19-14 lead with just about six minutes to go. But as was the case with their heartbreaking home loss to San Diego a few weeks ago, the Flyers had a little trouble closing out the game. The Hustle broke four times down the stretch to cut the lead to one point, 20-19, and the Flyers' offense had to kill off the last few seconds of clock under intense pressure. But this time they did it, and secured the win.

The Flyers are off this weekend but host Houston Havoc on June 20th.