By Noam Gumerman
The Carolina Flyers split their road trip against Washington DC, and Pittsburgh, falling Friday night to the Breeze 24-22 and rebounding against the Thunderbirds 31-17. The 1-1 weekend leaves them 6-2, still hot on the heels of the Austin Sol, who hold first place in the South Division ahead of their critical matchup in July.
In game one on Friday night, it was a back-and-forth battle the Flyers just came up short in. Zeke Thoreson did make his Flyers debut and was impressive, finishing his season debut with 5G/1A/2B and nearly 600 yards of offense. His Colorado Mammabird teammate Tobias Brooks is also settling into a big role on the team, and those two alongside Grayson Sanner racked up a lot of the Flyers' scores throughout the night. But despite building an early first half lead, Carolina was unable to break through DC’s consistent pressure in the reset space, as the Breeze took the Flyers out of their game plan better than any team has done so far this season. A quick run in the third quarter to bring the game close wouldn’t last, as the Breeze hunkered down on defense and pulled away in the second half.
Thankfully, the Flyers rebounded against Pittsburgh with a dominant win to close out the road trip. The Thunderbirds had no answer for anything the Flyers threw at them. Carolina turned over the disc just nine times, and just three of those turnovers were Thunderbird blocks. Sanner, Thoreson, and Brooks again led the way on offense, this time with Sanner doing a lot of the heavy lifting with an impressive 8G/3A/0T performance on the day. Cooper Williams was equally as dominant on the other side of the disc with four blocks to his name.
The Flyers will be at home for the rest of the regular season, playing their final four games in Durham. It’s four critical division games as well, with Houston coming to town this weekend, followed by Las Vegas, Atlanta, and then Austin in a game that could very well decide the division. Catch the action in person or on watchUFA.tv as the Flyers push for their spot in the playoffs and the regular-season division title.
