July 2, 2024
By Evan Lepler
1. New York Thrashes Salt Lake in Championship Rematch
The Empire have not been the dominant team in the league all year long, but they sure looked a whole lot like their dynastic selves on Saturday against Salt Lake, steamrolling the Shred 25-14 in New York’s first ever game at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford.
“I do feel like we kinda flipped the switch,” said Marques Brownlee, shortly after he led the Empire with five assists and three blocks in the double-digit romp. “It feels like our playoff mode is kind of underway.”
New York pounced early, bolting to a 4-0 lead they would never fully relinquish. Even after Salt Lake inched within one at 4-3, the Empire broke the Shred’s discombobulated O-line four more times in each the second and third quarters to lead 12-7 at the half and 20-10 through three.
How were the Empire able to so thoroughly flummox Salt Lake’s typically superb offense?
“We watched a lot of footage,” said Brownlee. “They are a very decisive early-throwing team, which is hard to guard, but when you know what they’re looking for and you get it the right spots, you kinda make them second guess it and slow down, so we controlled the tempo that way.”
The Empire are now 3-0 all-time against the Shred, with each recent victory coming by a larger margin than the one before. New York prevailed 23-19 in Utah last July, 19-12 in Minnesota in last year’s title game, and then by 11 on Saturday in Connecticut, handing Salt Lake its largest loss in franchise history.
“We just match up with them really well,” said Empire Coach Anthony Nuñez. “It’s because they have very similar players that we like to guard, and we have a bunch of hybrid defenders, which allows us to mix and match matchups…They’re a lot like DC. When you study as much game film on DC and Utah as we do, it makes the matchups a lot easier.”
By the end of the day, New York had gone 14-for-25 on break chances, getting four goals from Matt LaBar, four assists from Charles Weinberg, and three blocks apiece from Sam Jonas, Bretton Tan, and Brownlee. Five members of the Shred finished with multiple throwaways, including five apiece for Luke Yorgason and Grant Lindsley.
“Probably about as bad as we could’ve imagined it going,” said Salt Lake’s Jordan Kerr, who had just one goal, one assist, and was held under triple digits in both throwing yards and receiving yards for the first time in his career. “From my perspective, it was a combination of execution errors and a lot of defensive pressure from New York. And that pressure led to multiple blocks and more execution errors on our part…They knew what we wanted to accomplish and did a perfect job of taking that away.”
It was certainly a humbling wake-up call for the Shred, but as long as Salt Lake can take care of business against at home against Portland and Seattle, the championship still very much goes through Utah.
“Now it’s up to us to adapt and overcome,” added Kerr. “We’ve been punched in the mouth a few times this year, first by Colorado and now by New York. If we wanna accomplish the goals that we have in place, we need to learn how to adapt our play style, as well as develop the mental resilience when things aren’t going our way. I think we have the desire and talent on this team to figure it out, but we’ve got to do that now because the playoffs are right around the corner.”
2. DC Wallops Carolina
One night before New York stomped Salt Lake, DC also demolished Carolina in a battle between teams that began the weekend in first place. The Flyers had a chance to break the Breeze on the game’s opening point, but could not convert, a striking contrast to the fact that DC would finish the night with a brilliantly efficient 14 breaks on 15 opportunities.
“I believe that our defensive pressure and schemes were what propelled us to victory,” said Thomas Edmonds, who finished with four assists, two goals, and a block while leading the Breeze D-line. “We were able to force a lot of short-field turnovers and gain advantageous field position as a result. All in all, our best team performance and our most complete game of the season.”
Like the Shred, the Flyers only trailed by two at the end of the first and 13-7 at halftime, but DC outscored Carolina 12-6 in the second half as well, ultimately rolling by the final score of 25-13. It was the second time this year that the Breeze finished a game with more blocks than turns, as DC registered 12 Ds and endured just 11 giveaways.
Jonny Malks and Elliot Bonnet led the Breeze offense, each finishing with six scores. Malks also totaled a game-best 646 total yards.
With just one regular season game remaining, the Breeze head to New York on July 20 knowing that a win would guarantee a home game either as the one-seed or the two-seed. There’s also definitely a case to be made, following New York and DC’s combined 50-27 destruction over Salt Lake and Carolina, that perhaps three of the top four teams in the league are in the East.
“I did watch the New York vs. Salt Lake matchup, and I was a bit surprised by the score but at the end of the day I believe it makes sense,” said Edmonds. “Salt Lake without [the injured Will] Selfridge and Kerr, with an injured hand, appears to be getting fewer touches, the altitude changes for Salt Lake with this new frisbee, it ends up making sense in my head. New York is a very talented team.”
3. Atlanta Topples Texas to Stay Atop the South
Owners of the league’s longest active winning streak, the Hustle claimed their sixth and seventh consecutive victories in impressive fashion over Houston and Austin. On Friday, Atlanta clobbered Houston 27-12. One day later, the Hustle rampaged on a 12-4 run in the second half, outplaying the Sol in virtually every way when it mattered most in a 23-19 win in Austin.
“We entered the weekend with as high of confidence as we’ve had all season long,” said Hustle Captain Bradley Seuntjens. “With that being said, we knew at the end of the first half against Austin that we were only holding ourselves back. Coming into the second half, we simply wanted to ramp up the intensity and demonstrate that we are the ones in control. The team is dedicated to staying on this path of growth as we near the end of the regular season. We weren’t going to allow ourselves to take a step back. As the third quarter stretched on, we could feel we were one flip of the field away from breaking the game open. We simply took advantage of the opportunities given, unlike the first half. We also continue to go deep into our roster as needed, with everyone being willing to step into a role. I believe we only had five turns in the second half.”
Against the Havoc, whom the Hustle outscored 54-25 in two lopsided matchups this season, Atlanta was broken just once. Through 10 games on the season, the Hustle rank number one in the league in both offensive hold rate (74.6 percent) and O-line conversion rate (63.5 percent). Furthermore, only Boston has a better D-line conversion rate than Atlanta’s 62.1 percent.
“As a team, we know the hardest is yet to come,” said Seuntjens. “We also believe the league hasn’t seen our best product. This team is committed to not leaving anything on the table.”
The Hustle deserve the hype, but the Austin Sol were also kinda in control through the first part of the third quarter on Saturday night, only to suffer through a slew of poor errors that totally destroyed their chances to pull off the upset.
“I felt like rather than shooting ourselves in the foot, we shot each one of our toes off, toes being all the small and unfortunate execution errors,” said Austin’s Kyle Henke. “There weren’t that many glaring systematic issues, in fact we felt pretty good about the defensive pressure and offensive consistency up until a string of dumb turns…All I can do is listen to the voice that says ‘you only need to win the ones that matter at the end, you have to peak at the right time, your best game is still ahead.’ So, we win one or both of our next two games and then try to play spoiler once again in the playoffs.”
4. Carolina Bounces Back to Pummel Pittsburgh
After turning over the disc 34 times in their first three halves of the weekend, the Carolina Flyers finally found their preferred form in their final two quarters on Saturday night in Pittsburgh. Carolina only gave away possession four times in the second half against the Thunderbirds, a 24-minute stretch in which the Flyers outscored Pittsburgh 15-7 to break open a close game and prevail 23-14.
Tobi Brooks and Anders Juengst each were involved in six scores for Carolina, while Grayson Sanner added two goals, two assists, and two blocks. Flyers speedster Alex Davis also made his 2024 season debut on Saturday in the Steel City, registering two blocks in his first game as he works his way back from last fall’s Achilles injury.
Carolina clinched a playoff spot with the win, making it the ninth consecutive campaign that the Flyers will be competing in the UFA postseason. Carolina is 6-7 all-time in the playoffs, including the franchise’s first and only championship in 2021.
The Flyers host Philadelphia and Dallas the next two weeks, knowing that winning just one of the next two would put them in position to still seize the top spot in the South if they can prevail in their regular season finale at Atlanta.
5. An Ominous Outlook for Oakland?
After suffering as many losses in Week 10 as they endured in their first nine weeks combined, the suddenly 5-4 Oakland Spiders must know what everyone is thinking.
Last year, the Spiders embarked on their final regular season road trip—also a pair of contests in SoCal—needing just a single victory to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. But back-to-back heartbreaking losses left the eight-legged Bay Area boys on the outside looking in, and it’s a trend that could potentially repeat itself in 2024.
On Saturday in San Diego, just a week after a wire-to-wire home win over the Growlers, the Spiders fell behind 3-0 almost immediately and never led for a single second, falling 20-16.
“All the credit goes to our defensive guys,” said Growlers Captain Kyle Rubin. “Last week in Oakland, we really struggled to slow down the Spiders offense and generated very few break opportunities. We adjusted the game plan and those defensive guys came out and just grinded and executed exactly what we had hoped to do.”
Adding to the potential symmetry of last year’s collapse, when the Aviators needed San Diego to upset Oakland on the final day of the season in order to make the playoffs, the Growlers are now hoping to win out, which would include another home win over Oakland, and then send the Spiders to LA for the regular season finale, hopeful that their SoCal rivals will replicate the gift that was given a year ago.
“As for hoping to sneak into the playoffs, we are taking it one week at a time,” said Rubin. “Would be some excitement, though, if LA gets the opportunity to return last year’s favor and beat Oakland to punch our ticket.”
Obviously, the fact that LA handled Oakland on Sunday afternoon only adds to the intrigue, as the Aviators fell behind 1-0 but never trailed again, prevailing 19-17 for their second win of the season.
“Honestly, the game felt very similar to a lot of our other games this season,” said LA Coach Jeff Landesman. “We played really well, but missed some chances to increase the lead. This time, we were able to hold on and get some late breaks.”
According to the official stats, Oakland went 18-for-18 on its hucks, but just 1-for-4 in the red zone against the Aviators. Mitchell Steiner and Sean McDougall each finished with two assists, two blocks, and one goal, with Steiner’s lone goal coming late in the fourth on a huck from James Franklin to help put the game away.
In one of the more surprising nuggets I’ve recognized this season, the Spiders have now lost 11 straight games at Los Angeles and dropped eight consecutive contests at San Diego. If these streaks don’t change later this month, it will be another long, frustrating offseason in Oakland.
6. Philly 43, Canada 34
Whereas the Spiders matched their season-long total of losses in Week 10, the Philadelphia Phoenix’s equalled their win total for the season by sweeping a two-game trip through Toronto and Montreal.
Although it was too little, too late for playoff consideration, it represented a similar track that we’ve seen from Philly squads over the past couple seasons, with their best frisbee coming down the home stretch of the season.
“It was awesome to take care of business against the Canadians,” said James Pollard, who tallied four goals and three blocks in Saturday’s victory over Montreal. “This weekend, we really played together.”
Max Trifillis led the way with five goals and four blocks in Philly’s 20-16 triumph over Toronto on Saturday, while the Phoenix produced 12 breaks—twice as many as the day before—in Sunday’s 23-18 victory in Montreal.
With no playoffs looming, the Phoenix are hoping to make a powerful statement this Saturday in their daunting interdivisional test at Carolina.
“We got that nice home win last year [against the Flyers],” said Pollard, “But we want to go silence their crowd.”
7. Detroit’s Winning Streak Ends at One
Seeking their first two-game winning streak since 2016, the Detroit Mechanix were clearly overmatched against Minnesota, as the Wind Chill cruised to a 31-15 rout on Saturday night in Michigan. Minnesota finished the game with 25 blocks, the most of any team in a UFA game since the start of the pandemic.
“It can be difficult to go into those Detroit games with the same level of focus and it has resulted in some games that were closer than they should’ve been in the past,” said Minnesota’s Noah Hanson, who tallied three goals, two assists, and two blocks against the Mechanix, one day after his game-sealing block. “I was really proud of the level of professionalism our team showed in the first quarter of the game. We came focused and ready to play. Setting that tone from the start was really impressive, and I think it was a huge moment of growth for our team.”
Minnesota led 8-2 through 12 minutes and broke the Mechanix 17 days on the night, while Detroit produced only two breaks for the game. Detroit gunslinger Jake Felton tossed nine more assists, but also had 11 more throwaways, extending his league leads in both categories.
At 1-8, the Mechanix may have ended the streak, but they’ve also been outscored by 82 goals in their nine games, easily the worst point-differential in the league.
The Hammer
With just 32 games left in the regular season, we really have arrived at the sprint to the finish line. Looking ahead, the final weekend of the regular season has the potential for some tectonic results, with Seattle traveling to Salt Lake, DC visiting New York, and Carolina going back to Atlanta.
But interestingly, the Week 11 slate features just one game between two teams with winning records: 5-4 Chicago at 8-1 Minnesota.
Of course, that’s not the only intriguing game on the schedule.
I’ll be back in Golden for the first ever meeting between the Colorado Summit and the Indianapolis AlleyCats in the next chapter of the UFA Super Series. Along with the unfamiliar matchup, this will be a battle between two teams who can still build decent postseason resumes by winning out, but also both know that a loss will be crippling to their respective cause.
I’ll also have my eye on Pittsburgh at Madison, Philly at Carolina, and San Diego at LA, which happens to be the only Sunday game this week, scheduled for 4:00 PM/ET.
Wherever you are, have a great Fourth of July holiday, and here’s to a few more unexpected epics this weekend!
