By Cody Roy

August 10th, 2021

It was another difficult night for Boston Glory, as they found themselves on the losing end of another nail-biter, falling to Raleigh Flyers 19-18.

Boston's rearmed offense wasn't enough to outlast that of Raleigh, as Glory saw the return of cutter Tannor Johnson from a week-one ankle injury. Johnson himself put up a solid 3-goal, 3-assist night; all while playing in an off-position.

“... my ankle’s not fully recovered, so a little less downfield pressure,” Johnson said postgame. “Luckily they let me stay in the handler space. I’m pretty good with [Ben Sadok] and [Jake Taylor]...”

In that handler space, Johnson was able to work the disc around quite well, serving as the primary upline cutter, allowing Sadok the ability to move around more freely and find whatever open space Flyers would give. Johnson would complete 95% of his throws, recording 237 throwing yards and 532 yards of total offense, a very solid return for a player who reports not being at full strength.

Boston’s offense would fire out of the gate with a quick goal, followed by a pair of Boston breaks to go up 3-0 before Raleigh could stop the bleeding. Boston would hold until the end of the first quarter when they would be broken for the first time; still ending the quarter up 6-4.

The second quarter would start with a Raleigh hold and break, before Boston would stabilize the lead at one, taking a 10-9 lead into the locker room.

Raleigh were unable to claim their first lead of the night until early in the fourth quarter; when a very long sequence of play that saw three turnovers (including a Ryan Woodhouse layout block) and two timeouts ended with Raleigh’s D-Line forcing a break to take a 16-15 lead, one which they would never look back from.

All told, Glory played quite well, especially offensively as Johnson broke down after the game:

“It didn’t feel like we were caving under the pressure of their defense… we stayed composed even though we were throwing some turns but I think we kept our mental about us.”

The mental game has been an issue at times for Boston this season, as there have been times where Glory’s frustration would turn to unnecessary throwaways, but that seemed to fade tonight.

For Raleigh, patience was the name of the game. Patience, and Terrance Mitchell. Mitchell would put up a game-high 6 goals, going +8 and adding a block as the primary cutting target. Mitchell would pose a problem for Glory all evening, his speed and vertical ability going unmatched.

Despite Mitchell's efforts, Boston were still able to pin Raleigh's offense exactly where they wanted too.

“We played pretty good downfield defense… we didn’t let them get their first option a lot of the time and they had to work that I/O break lane… we made them really work for it.”

Flyers will host Atlanta Hustle next Saturday, in a matchup that presents to be a clash of titans, with Raleigh looking to go level with Atlanta in the standings.

Next up for the Glory is the second half of this current homestand, as they host Pittsburgh Thunderbirds Friday August 13th, with first pull set for 7pm at Medford’s Hormel Stadium.