The San Diego Growlers traveled to Portland on Friday, July 14 to take on the Nitro.
Portland started the game with a hold, then broke San Diego twice before Travis Dunn assisted to Casey Wu. The Growlers had multiple chances to break, but the Nitro eventually held after a timeout, 4-1. Smooth offense followed from Bryce Lozinski to Max Gibson for a goal, but Portland also held. The Growlers held and then prevented the Nitro from scoring at the buzzer, 5-3.
The Nitro were playing with confidence and broke the Growlers twice before they held, and Nitro countered back, 7-4. The teams traded, then Portland capitalized on several San Diego turnovers and broke three times in a row. The Growlers stopped the bleeding with a buzzer beater assist from Max Hume to Gibson, 11-6.
After multiple turnovers, a timeout and almost 4 minutes, the Growlers punched in their first break of the game when Bryce Lozinski found Collin Gall. The teams traded two scores each, then San Diego secured another break after Ben Levinsky fed Garrett Hable, 13-10. The Nitro held and almost broke before the buzzer, but a throwaway kept the score at 14-10.
San Diego’s self-inflicted mistakes were adding up with yet another turnover to start the 4th quarter, and Portland took advantage with another break. The Growlers got back on track with a couple of goals, and had a great opportunity to break on the next point, but a drop led to a Nitro score, 16-12. Stefan Samu caught a nice huck from Gall, then a San Diego double team led to a break with Jeff Silverman finding Caden Sigerud, 16-14. After playing great defense, the Growlers forced another turnover but could not convert and the Nitro held, 17-14 with only 3:27 remaining. Paul Lally found Samu for a quick score, and after a Portland stall, the Growlers had a great chance in the redzone but couldn’t connect, and the Nitro went the length of field and scored the last point of the game for the win, 18-15.
The Growlers were led by Travis Dunn (4 assists, 2 goals) with +4 performance, and Stefan Samu (1 assist, 2 goals) contributed a solid +3 game.
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On Saturday, July 15, the Growlers drove to Seattle to face the Cascades at Memorial Stadium.
Seattle started a sequence of three holds for each team, with Travis Dunn assisting on all 3 San Diego scores, but the Cascades struck first with another hold and a break, 5-3. More trading, then a Growlers drop led to a Cascades break 7-4. Stefan Samu connected with Casey Wu for a key hold, Seattle held, then the Growlers score right before the quarter ended, down 8-6.
The Growlers gained some momentum with a Dunn to Samu huck, then broke when Clark Wang hucked to Ben Levinsky who dished to Tom Konogeris, 8-8. The teams traded several holds until San Diego turned it over on their endzone right before the halftime buzzer sounded, 12-11.
The Cascades held on offense to start the second half, but the Growlers answered with Collin Gall’s deep shot to a diving Samu for the goal. Seattle responded well with a hold and a break, and San Diego settled down and scored on offense, 15-13. The Cascades punched back with a hold and two break before the Growlers could respond with their own hold, 18-14. The teams traded, then San Diego mustered their own break after a timeout, Lally to Dunn, to get within three scores, 19-16.
San Diego started the fourth quarter with two drops and a throwaway, which produced three consecutive Seattle breaks, 22-16. The teams traded several holds in a row, with Dunn assisting to Kyle Rubin, Max Gibson and Casey Wu, but it was not enough as the Cascades broke two more times and traded out for the convincing 29-22 win.
The Growlers were led by Travis Dunn (9 assists, 1 goal) with +9 performance, and Stefan Samu (2 assists, 5 goals) and Casey Wu (5 goals) each contributed +5 games. San Diego will host their final game of the 2023 season on Saturday, July 22 vs the Oakland Spiders at Mission Bay HS at 6:15 pm.
