Photo Credit: Greg Pettus
The San Diego Growlers hosted the Oakland Spiders on Saturday, July 20 for their last game of the 2024 UFA season. After being eliminated from the playoffs with the loss to LA two weeks ago and facing some injuries, the Growlers were playing for pride and the Spiders were tuning up for the playoffs as the #3 seed in the UFA West Division.
The Spiders received the disc to start the game and promptly held on offense, but the Growlers countered with a Max Gibson to Max Hume deep connection. The CA teams traded until Oakland converted the first break to take a 7-4 lead. San Diego stopped the bleeding with a Tom Konogeris to Bryce Lozinski goal with 45 seconds left, which ended up being the last score of the quarter.
The Growlers held to start the 2nd quarter, then earned their first break with a Ben Levinsky interception, timeout, and a Travis Dunn assist to Stefan Samu, 7-7. The teams traded, then Jimmy McGuinness flew for the layout interception, then another timeout led to a Dunn highlight thumber throw to Samu for the break and the lead, 9-8. The Spiders struck back quickly with a hold and two breaks in a row to take the lead back 11-9. The teams traded out to end the 1st half with Oakland ahead 13-11.
Oakland held on offense then broke San Diego to increase their lead to 15-11. The teams traded, then the Spiders converted another break to take their biggest lead of the night, 17-12. The Growlers stayed in the game with a Dunn flick across the field to Clark Wang for the goal. The teams proceeded to trade several more scores until a Jordan Queckboerner block stopped the clock with 6 seconds remaining in the quarter. When play resumed, Krishna Gomatom ripped a backhand huck into the hands of Gibson for the buzzer beater break score, 20-17.
With some momentum now, Hume sent a long throw to Konogeris who toed the back line for the hold, 20-18. The teams traded a couple scores each, but then Oakland effectively sealed the game with two consecutive breaks to build an insurmountable 25-20 lead. With the clock winding down, the Growlers scored two more goals but came up short against the Spiders, 26-22.
The Growlers were led by Max Gibson (6 assists, 4 goals, 1 block) with a +10 performance, and Travis Dunn (5 assists, 2 goals, 1 block) and Tom Konogeris (2 assists, 4 goals) had a pair of great +6 games.
The Spiders will travel to Seattle to face the Cascades this Saturday, July 27 in the first round of the West Division playoffs on WatchUFA.tv.
