July 8, 2019
By Evan Lepler
Throughout the 2019 season, the AUDL’s weekly honor roll will be revealed each Monday, honoring seven players whose individual exploits merit recognition. The players are listed alphabetically by last name.
- Quentin Bonnaud, Montreal Royal — If it feels like the 23-year-old Frenchman has become a permanent fixture in the weekly Honor Roll, it’s because he has. This is the fifth time this season—all since Week 5—that Quentin Bonnaud’s production has earned him a spot amongst the league’s sensational seven, as he again paced the Montreal Royal in plus-minus with his third double-digit day of the campaign. On Thursday against Ottawa, Bonnaud registered +11 with seven goals, one assist, and three blocks, completing all 22 of his throws and helping Montreal earn the 25-22 triumph. With one regular season game remaining, Bonnaud’s 73 goals easily tops the AUDL charts, and his +90 for the year is currently tied with New York’s Ben Jagt for the #1 plus/minus in the circuit.
- Cameron Brock, Indianapolis AlleyCats — It’s mighty tough to put Cameron Brock’s 500th goal into perspective, but here’s my best crack at it: Take the only two-time MVPs in AUDL history, Goose Helton (2012 and 2013) and Beau Kittredge (2014 and 2015), and add up all the goals they have scored in their careers. That combined total is still 86 fewer than what Brock has done by himself, as the Indianapolis AlleyCats veteran striker snagged his 500th and 501st all-time scores on the same night his Indianapolis franchise earned its first ever Midwest Division regular season title. While Brock has played more games than any other individual in the history of the league, he has still maintained a scoring average of 4.25 goals per game, one of just three players all-time (along with Bonnaud and Raleigh’s Mischa Freystaetter) who have played at least 50 games to produce to that extent.
- Travis Carpenter, Indianapolis AlleyCats — There’s certainly an AlleyCat flavor to the Week 14 honorees, and deservedly so. For the 26-year-old Travis Carpenter, Saturday’s win over Chicago in his 104th career AUDL game was typical for the caliber of player he has grown into: two goals, seven assists, four additional hockey assists, and his fingerprints all over a hard-fought win over another strong opponent. As one of just six players who’s in his eighth season in the league, Carpenter’s 2019 featured career-bests in assists (50) and completion percentage (96.1 percent), with one regular season game remaining.
- Ben Jagt, New York Empire — After initially being listed as inactive for Week 14, Ben Jagt did indeed suit up for the New York Empire’s regular season finale, collecting five goals, five assists, and four blocks in New York’s 22-20 come-from-behind triumph at Philly, giving the Empire a perfect 12-0 record for the 2019 season. While Jagt’s throwaways—he averaged two per game—remain a concern, his overall production was undeniably spectacular, as he upped his season-high scoring totals to 54 goals and 54 assists, becoming the first player in the league since 2015 to go 50/50 in the regular season. Jagt joined Indy’s Keenan Plew, Raleigh’s Justin Allen and Toronto’s Isaiah Masek-Kelly as the only players in AUDL history to score 50 goals and dish 50 assists in a single-season. Of course, Jagt’s the only player in AUDL history to reach these statistical plateaus for a team that did not lose any games.
- Mike Mackenzie, Toronto Rush — Most serious AUDL fans were at least aware that the Toronto Rush was missing the younger Mackenzie brother’s impact throughout the season after he suffered a knee injury on May 4, but Mike Mackenzie's return on Saturday vs. DC reminded us all that he could be a game-changing presence for the Toronto D-line heading into the playoffs. In 16 points played against the DC Breeze, Mackenzie accumulated four goals, three assists, and one block, with the latter being a momentum-swinging Callahan that helped trigger a three-break barrage in the third quarter, transforming a slim 14-13 lead into a commanding 17-13 spread. Mackenzie also completed all 10 of his throws in a turnover-free return to the field, leading the Rush at +8 overall.
- Keenan Plew, Indianapolis AlleyCats — While his role has evolved over the past few years, Keenan Plew remains a critical eighth-year AlleyCat who had his paws all over Indy’s historic division-clinching win. In a game where the two teams traded barbs throughout four tightly-contested quarters, Plew was an O-line anchor who dodged the turnover column completely, going 41-for-41, with two goals and three assists. Though his season-long assist numbers are at an all-time low, his 2019 completion percentage is at an all-time high, a shade below 98 percent heading into the final weekend. Among the top 15 throwers in the league in completions per game, Plew’s 97.8 percent rate is third-best, trailing only Raleigh’s Noah Saul and DC’s Nathan Prior.
- Max Sheppard, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds — Despite four throwaways throughout the 53+ minute double overtime affair in Detroit, the 2019 AUDL All-Star Game MVP willed his Pittsburgh Thunderbirds team back from a six-goal second-half deficit to prevail 24-23, avoiding the embarrassing status of being the team that lost to the winless Mechanix. Max Sheppard finished +14, the highest total of anyone in the league this past weekend, with 12 assists, four goals, and two blocks, all while playing an insane 42 points. With two critically important games coming up this weekend, Sheppard needs eight goals and seven assists to join Plew, Allen, and Jagt with a 50/50 season of his own.