August 12, 2025
By Evan Lepler
My goodness, I love divisional championship weekend.
Every year, the UFA’s de facto quarterfinals deliver the drama in unforgettable fashion, creating iconic memories and rewriting frisbee history. The stories are compelling, the highlights are huge, and the contrasting ecstasy and agony are as real as it gets.
Chronologically, Atlanta conquered demons, Boston obliterated the Breeze, Minnesota shocked Chicago, and Salt Lake somehow survived the Spiders in perhaps the craziest game of them all. Collectively, the emotions, intensity, and suspense were so much richer than these quickly crafted headlines.
Thankfully, unlike the Boston Glory’s maniacally careful postseason offense, the Tuesday Toss is willing and eager to go deep.
The Full Field Layout
Despite most neutral spectators believing they had little chance, the Minnesota Wind Chill insisted they were completely confident going into Saturday’s Central Division title game in Chicago.
“I told everyone who asked me about it the week before that we were going to win,” said Wind Chill cutter Gordon Larson. “I knew that if we even gave them a decent showing that the game would go very differently.”
Of course, there’s no doubt that every team that lost this past weekend entered the action fully expecting to win. But the Wind Chill offense was comically uncompetitive for extended stretches against the Union during their two regular season meetings, losing by five at home in May and by 10 at Chicago in July.
When Minnesota immediately surrendered back-to-back breaks in the opening three minutes on Saturday, it felt, to most spectators, like deja vu. But the Wind Chill remained undeterred.
“Going down 2-0 was not the start we wanted, but there was never a thought in my mind that brought me back to our previous losses,” said Minnesota’s Noah Hanson. “Our team has become really good at taking each individual moment and encapsulating it into what it truly is: just one moment. Our response to those moments, good or bad, is what makes our team so special.”
The reigning champions indeed responded with their characteristic resilience. The O-line converted three consecutive turnover-free holds after the sloppy start, and the team’s dynamic D-line opened the second quarter with four straight breaks, stunning viewers nationwide by taking a 7-5 lead.
“To me, the keys were trusting our offense and converting our chances,” said Wind Chill D-liner Justin Burnett. “It’s very hard to play defense when you are down if you don’t have faith that your offense can hold, because you kinda feel desperate for every block. We never felt that way this game, so we were able to execute our game plan, wear them down, and play patient team defense, which led to a lot of blocks and turns down the stretch.”
Chicago closed the first half on a 3-0 spurt to lead 8-7 at intermission, but the Wind Chill had shown they could hang, battling through the blustery conditions and the early adversity to keep things tight. They continued to trade haymakers in the second half, exchanging the lead back and forth five times in the closing two quarters. Both teams made their own remarkable runs, keyed by crazy layouts, desperate effort, and several poor throws that were hijacked by the wonky wind.
With the game on the line—tied at 17-all with 2:45 remaining—a brilliant pull from Minnesota’s Cameron Lacy had the Union offense working out of their own end zone. Six short completions over the next 30 seconds didn’t yield many positive yards, and as Chicago’s Daan De Marrée caught a swing near the back corner of his own end zone, Wind Chill defender Noah Hanson was ready to hunt.
“I love having the opportunity to perform in clutch moments,” said Hanson. “Time slows down for me, and all I want to do is make plays for my teammates and coaches [...] I could see every motion that was happening around me and knew I had an opportunity to make a play.”
De Marrée saw a small window to squeeze an inside flick to a slashing Paul Arters, but Hanson launched himself through the air, soaring fully horizontal for a monstrous layout block right on the goal line. Truthfully, he thought he had a Callahan, only for the ground to dislodge the disc from his grasp.
“I saw Paul going upline and knew it was the only option to hit,” Hanson remembered. “I knew it was coming and was excited when Daan threw it. I cannot believe I didn’t hang onto the catch for the Callahan.”
After a timeout, the Wind Chill punched in the go-ahead score, with Matt Rehder connecting with Bryan Vohnoutka to punctuate the point, highlighted by Hanson’s unbelievable block.
“Noah’s block felt like the culmination of the D-line’s energy on every point and our commitment to staying locked in on the play in front of us,” said Rehder.
One point later, Nate Goff launched an ambitious deep shot, but De Marrée was covered, and Burnett got credit for his second block of the night. The Wind Chill were out of timeouts but only a handful of completions away from putting the game to bed.
Double-teamed on the sideline with the stall count climbing, Tristan Van de Moortele had no good options, so he ripped a booming backhand deep down the sideline. The pass initially looked like a decent punt, but Dylan DeClerck had other ideas, remarkably scooping the disc up near the sideline just before it found the ground. With 18 seconds left, DeClerck dished the final scoring pass to Thomas Shope, doubling the Wind Chill lead and sending the Union to the brutal reality that their undefeated season had suddenly gone up in flames.
“When [Dylan] threw the score, I told the Union and the crowd ‘bye-bye,’ and hearing the absolute silence from their sideline and the fans was the best feeling ever,” said Burnett. “Victory felt earned, deserved, long-time coming, and super sweet.”
Minnesota prevailed 19-17, shocking Chicago on their home field to deny the Union their expected slot as one of the favorites at Championship Weekend. While Chicago certainly carried themselves with a lofty air of confidence throughout the season, team leaders acknowledged that they fell short in the biggest moment.
“Spots at Champ Weekend are earned, not earmarked,” said Union Co-Head Coach Charlie Furse, rejecting the premise that Chicago was supposed to win. “Minnesota earned their spot. We did not.”
The Union’s offense finished the game with 10 scores on 30 possessions, their second-worst conversion percentage of the season. The wind was certainly a factor in that, as were, of course, the Wind Chill.
“If you want something to watch, look at every single mark we set on their O-line guys,” said Larson. “We were not giving out any free throws.”
Chicago also completed just four hucks in 11 chances and matched a season-high with seven red-zone turnovers.
“We had offensive struggles all year," said Goff. “We got away with low offensive efficiency much of this year because we secured dirty holds and our own D-line was so dominant that we would keep our offense off the field. We did have strong individual play from the offensive players—Daan, Lotto [Brandon Van Deusen], and Ben Preiss come to mind—but systematically we had trouble connecting the handlers to the cutters in the mid-layer, which was particularly prevalent in this game, manifesting with the Noah Hanson block deep in our red zone in the fourth. As a veteran leader of the team, I feel guilt that we couldn’t figure it out.”
The stunning, staggering setback left Chicago as the first team in UFA history to finish a regular season undefeated but fail to make Championship Weekend. Meanwhile, the reigning champion Wind Chill earned the right to represent the Central in the semis for the third consecutive season. Perhaps even more significantly, they regained bragging rights over their Windy City rivals heading into the offseason and 2026.
“As time expired, all I could think about was our history with the Union,” said Hanson. “Rivalries are the best thing in sports, and I have a lot of respect for a lot of their players. But I remember how much they were talking in the offseason, how much they were talking when we played them in the regular season [...] I remember them beating us in the playoffs and seeing them celebrate on our field. I am really glad we got to show them how good Minnesota ultimate is and am really proud of how we showed up in big moments as a team, internally focused and ready for war. We are all very ready to give everything that we have at Championship Weekend.”
*****
As the frisbee universe processed the Central stunner, the West Division duel also got off to a pretty strange start. The Salt Lake Shred opened the game with three straight breaks, and it took the Spiders nearly 10 minutes to score their first goal, which came with 2:20 left in the first.
At the end of the opening frame, the Shred were up 4-1.
“The wind was definitely a factor,” said Oakland’s Walker Frankenberg. “There were pretty swirly conditions. It’s a game of inches, so a few small plays or things not going your way makes a big difference. From a systems or mentality perspective on offense, it didn’t feel like much changed between the first quarter and the rest of the game—just cleaned up our execution errors.”
Over the next couple quarters, the Spiders absolutely found their groove, going unbroken and seizing control with a 13-6 surge that put Oakland ahead 14-11 heading into the fourth. The Shred offense, broken four points in a row in a rough third quarter, was reeling, and it felt like Salt Lake’s 11-game winning streak was very much in jeopardy.
“The third quarter felt very similar to our second quarter against Minnesota [in the regular season finale],” said Shred cutter Jordan Kerr. “When teams ramp up the pressure and intensity, how do we respond? It’s still something we’re working on.”
Heading into the fourth quarter with their season on the line, Salt Lake was desperate to turn things around.
“I just remember everybody in the huddle looking around at each other and having a whole lotta life left in those eyes,” said Shred handler Eugene L’Heureux. “We are a different team, we have made some crazy comebacks this year and stared down the barrel of defeat quite a few times. We were down three and we knew we were going to get ourselves back and have a shot. All we had to do was take advantage of that opportunity when it presented itself.”
Will Selfridge opened the fourth with a contested scoring catch, inching the Shred within two with 11:06 left. Minutes later, Tony Mounga’s layout block created a break chance, and with 9:27 remaining, Mounga connected with L’Heureux to shrink the Spiders' lead down to one.
And on the very next point, the Shred challenged Oakland’s offense with a sideline double team, and the immediate hammer was tipped incomplete by Kyle Weinberg. After a timeout, Jacob Miller dished to Braden Eberhard for the equalizer, and the Shred had tied the game with a 3-0 run in just over three minutes.
Meanwhile, the ShredHead fans were going absolutely bonkers.
“Loudest place I’ve ever played by far with the fans so close,” said L’Heureux. “We had to change how we called matchups on the line because we couldn’t hear.”
With just 2:07 left, the Shred regained the lead for the first time in the frenetic fourth, as Sam Pew’s reset interception led to Mounga finding Selfridge for the go-ahead score, giving Salt Lake a 17-16 lead.
Less than a minute later, with the Spiders backed up deep in their own end zone, Mounga delivered another jaw-dropping layout block, sending the Salt Lake sideline and crowd into an absolute frenzy as he tossed his third assist of the quarter to give the Shred an 18-16 advantage with just 1:23 left.
“Tony won us that game in the fourth quarter,” said Kerr. “The blocks, the assists, the energy. No one plays with their heart on their sleeve like Tony does, and I’m so grateful to have him as a teammate.”
Precariously, Chad Yorgason tossed a Callahan with 31 seconds left, as Adam Rees intercepted the swing to bring the Spiders back within one. And Oakland actually did force another desperation turnover with 10 seconds left, but Eli Kerns’ three-quarter-field prayer was easily snatched by Selfridge shy of the end zone, and time expired on Salt Lake’s thrilling and narrow 18-17 victory.
“This is everything you want from a young team,” said Shred Coach Bryce Merrill in a postgame interview, posted Saturday night on the team’s Instagram story. “Highs were high, lows were low. [We] did our best with a couple of funky plays at the end to make sure this stayed a one-point game, maybe even flirt with overtime. But I go back to the heart of the team to fight back. We had that lull in the third. It’s just a lot of heart. That’s what we’ve trained this year. Rather than training skill, we trained the ability to win and the ability to compete, and I saw that time and time again all season and again tonight. I’m feeling like a very proud coach.”
While the Shred joyously celebrated, the Spiders felt like they gave the game away.
“Really felt like we should’ve had that one,” said Frankenberg. “Lots of crazy plays in the fourth, and it really just comes down to us not being able to convert on our downwind holds. It felt like we were moving the disc easily and had a couple errant and casual looks that could’ve worked, but didn’t.”
Notably, the Shred finished the game 13-for-13 in the red zone, while the Spiders went 12-for-23, with half of their turnover count coming amidst potential scoring situations. Salt Lake finished the night with 13 blocks; three for Mounga and one apiece for 10 other players.
And one year after losing by a single goal at home in the West Division final, the youthful Shred avoided another home heartbreaker, digging out of a deficit against the Spiders for the third time this season. Overall, it was Salt Lake’s 12th consecutive triumph, and the franchise claimed its second West Division crown in the last three seasons.
Despite the success, Merrill also understands just how young his team is. Undaunted, he’s perfectly fine bringing his boys into battle.
"I remember listening to the first broadcast, and another team’s player was calling us boys out here in Salt Lake,” said Merrill. “And so I hope the men on the other three teams are ready, because the boys from Salt Lake are coming to Championship Weekend, baby!”
Coming up later today in “Seven On The Line”, plenty of perspective and pride coming out of Atlanta and Boston, where the Hustle and Glory earned their first trips to Championship Weekend in emotional, satisfying fashion.
