By Noam Gumerman
The Carolina Flyers won another thriller at home to finish off the regular season, 21-20 over the Austin Sol in a comeback victory that kept them alive for the top seed in the South Division ahead of the playoffs.
Once again it was another slow start for the Flyers in the first quarter, and then a back and forth middle half of a game that for the second week in a row came down to the wire with another dramatic and wild finish.
The Flyers started off the first quarter a little out of sync on offense. Both teams in fact, looked as though they were aware of the stakes of the game, but the road team, Austin, was the team that was able to push the nerves to the side and build a 6-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Flyers offense couldn’t connect on some open looks, made some poor decisions, and couldn’t take the ball away from Austin once they gave it up. Not too dissimilar to their early performance against Atlanta last week.
But the Flyers taking control of the game across the second and third quarter, and Austin rallying back to tie the game and then go up a break was really all just setup for another truly stunning ending to a Flyers game for at least the third or fourth time this year. With the game tied 19-19 and under two minutes to go, Carolina pulled to Austin. The Sol’s Kyle Henke threw away the disc directly to a poaching Dillon Bruer just 15 yards outside his own end zone. Then, just a couple throws later with under a minute and a half to go, the disc bounced off of both of Suraj Madiraju’s hands and into the turf to bail out Henke and Sol and allow them to take a 20-19 lead with just 42 seconds to go. The Flyers decided not to milk any clock and blazed down the field in just six throws and tied the game with 19 seconds left. Seemingly the Flyers would have to hope to force overtime against one final Austin offensive push.
But with the game clock ticking down into the final seconds of regulation, Austin had yet another miscue deep in their own territory, this team with Kyle Henke and Evan Swiatek miscommunicating in the backfield and giving the disc to Carolina on the goal line with ten seconds to go. Suraj Madiraju found Matt Tucker in the ensuing chaos to give Carolina the lead with six seconds left, and ultimately gave them the win in their final game of the regular season to keep hope for that top seed in the South Division alive. And, to hand Austin their first loss on the season so far.
Allan Laviolette’s reintegration into the Flyers O-line was largely successful, two turnovers is a subpar for his high standards but his 6A/2G and over 550 yards of offense is a reminder he’s still one of the league’s premier offensive talents. Tobias Brooks and Zeke Thoreson continue to battle each other for most impactful roster addition to the Flyers this year, each putting up identical 4A/2G/1T stat lines and combining for over 1,000 yards of offense. On the defensive side of the disc, the aforementioned Bruer alongside Owen Stout and Drew Swanson combined for seven of the team’s nine blocks, with all three finishing with at least two.
Unfortunately for Carolina, Austin pulled out a narrow win over Atlanta on the second half of their road doubleheader, so in order to secure the top spot in the South Division, the Flyers will need to rely on a Houston Havoc team that has only beaten a winless Las Vegas Bighorns squad on the year to upset Austin. Otherwise the Flyers will play host to the San Diego Growlers in the first round of the playoffs for the right to face Austin again, on the road.
