May 28, 2025
By Evan Lepler
In lieu of the typical "Tuesday" Toss, here’s a glimpse at seven things that made me say “Wow!” over the course of a wild nine-game Week 5 across the UFA. If you missed any of the action during the holiday weekend, this should catch you up and prepare you for the thrilling couple months ahead.
1. San Diego's epic, sudden death win in Carolina
The Growlers and Flyers put on a show on Friday night, producing 50 goals in 53 minutes before it all came down to a single point. With only 24 total turns between the two teams combined, stars on both sides delivered huge offensive performances. Allan Laviolette tossed nine assists and went 45-for-45 for the Flyers. Jesse Cohen and Oliver Artus each finished with six goals and three assists apiece for the Growlers. Jacob Fairfax scored seven goals, Travis Dunn dished seven assists, and both had over 500 total yards. Amidst all this greatness, the entire result came down to a couple crazy moments in double overtime.
San Diego began the climactic universe point on defense, and Carolina’s Grayson Sanner saved possession with an incredible layout grab early in the final sequence. But a few throws later, Sanner underthrew an ambitious forehand deep shot, and San Diego’s Stefan Samu smacked it down.
Fairfax nearly delivered a gigantic layout block on Samu as the Growlers worked toward the game-winner, but the refs called a foul on the adjacent contact. Reasonable call, but heartbreaking for the Flyers, as Khalif El-Salaam found Samu one throw later for the game’s final score.
For over two hours, this cross-coast battle produced dozens of wows. But the final result stunningly dropped the Flyers to 0-4 and lifted the Growlers to 4-1. Since it’s the only regular season meeting between Carolina and San Diego, the Growlers would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, though the Flyers have a lot of work to do to make that a relevant conversation.
Carolina travels to Philly and Pittsburgh this weekend, almost certainly needing an interdivisional sweep to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.
2. New York showed championship heart in Philadelphia
With just a 9-8 record in their previous 17 games, the Empire arrived in Philly this past Friday night in danger of falling even further out of the East Division race. Understanding the stakes, New York put forth an inspired effort, holding the lead for most of the night. But the Phoenix fought back in the fourth quarter, and with two minutes left, they had the disc with a chance to take the lead. That’s when Empire defender Sam Jonas made a potentially season-saving swat, denying Adam Grossberg’s deep shot intended for Matt Hanna. It was Jonas’ third block of the game and earned him a spot on the Week 6 "Honor Roll".
With less than a minute left, Jonas connected with Axel Agami Contreras for the go-ahead score, and Antoine Davis’ block at the buzzer secured the slim 17-16 victory. Instead of another brutal one-goal loss on the road, the Empire flipped their fortune to instead prevail by the smallest possible margin.
Much like San Diego-Carolina, this was a tremendously high-level and entertaining game. The two teams only had 12 and 14 turns apiece, and both teams combined to 27 out of 36 hucks, a superb 75 percent. John Randolph, primarily playing O-line for the Empire, totaled four assists, two goals, one block, and completed all 48 of his throws while compiling 629 total yards.
Furthermore, the Phoenix were clearly frustrated by a borderline foul call against Scott Heyman, who got whistled for slight contact while skying for the block against New York’s Jacob Cowan a couple throws after Jonas’ block. It was certainly a tough whistle for the hometown Phoenix to understand, but Philly ultimately suffered their first loss of the year, dropping to 3-1 heading into this Saturday’s home date against the reeling Flyers.
3. Salt Lake's stunning six-goal comeback
The Shred were shorthanded and stumbling, trailing 12-6 midway through the second quarter against Seattle. It was about to be 14-8 as Tommy Lin tossed a floater toward Aaron Wolf near the Salt Lake end zone. But Wolf’s layout came up empty, and the Shred, with less than 10 seconds remaining in the half, were off to the races. Chad Yorgason hauled in Sam Pew’s 64-yard bomb at the buzzer, and suddenly the Cascades lead had been narrowed to four.
Seattle scored in just 30 seconds on their opening second half possession to go up 14-9, but then Salt Lake stormed back with five straight goals to tie it up. As the Zions Bank Stadium crowd roared, the Shred took their first lead of the game 92 seconds into the fourth and proceeded to prevail 22-21.
For the Cascades, it was their third loss of the season by just a single score, and dropped their overall record to 1-4. The Shred, despite playing with nine players who had just two or fewer games of all-time UFA experience, rose to 2-1 and stayed above .500 in the contentious West Division race.
4. Another one-goal game in Vegas
Friday night featured four separate games on the UFA schedule, all of which were ultimately decided by a single score.
As Salt Lake rallied back again Seattle, the Oregon Steel did the same at Vegas. Tthe Steel trailed by two with five minutes left in the third, and they closed the game with a 6-3 push to escape with a 14-13 victory. With just 16 seconds left, David Barram hit Quinn Buermeyer for the go-ahead score.
Aside from the closeness of the game, the biggest wow from this one was the fact that Vegas finished the night with two more breaks than Oregon. The Bighorns had five breaks on their 15 chances, while the Steel only had three breaks on 18 tries.
So how did the Steel earn their second win?
They won all four end-of-quarter situations. In the first, Nate “Juice” Knutson’s goal with 2:54 remaining was the last score of the period. Same story for Barram’s scores with 1:07 left in the second and 1:46 on the clock in the third. With the game on the line in the closing seconds, the Bighorns worked the disc across midfield and got a decent look with Ryan Hiser’s cross-field hammer at the buzzer, but neither of his teammates in the area could bring it in and force overtime.
It was the closest call yet for the Bighorns, but the UFA’s lone 2025 expansion team remained winless, falling to 0-4. On the flipside, the surprising Steel improved to 2-2—for the moment. Oregon dipped back below .500 when they dropped their Saturday contest at Colorado, 24-14.
5. Minnesota erupts for second 30-plus goal game of the season in Pittsburgh
I was not able to watch this game live, but checking the score for the first time on the UFA app produced an audible ‘Wow!’
31 to 14. Looked like a lopsided game between the Vikings and Steelers.
It was a resounding response on the road for the Wind Chill, who had scored just 11 goals in their Week 4 home opener against Chicago. They surpassed that margin midway through the second period en route to a ridiculous 15-2 lead. Minnesota led 15-3 at the half and the Chill outscored the Thunderbirds by multiple scores in all four quarters in Saturday’s road rout.
Disappointing for the Thunderbirds, who fell behind 8-2 in the first quarter for their second straight game. Minnesota finished the game 18-for-25 on break chances, earning the second-most breaks any team has produced in a game this season, only trailing New York’s 19 breaks against Vegas back in Week 1. The Wind Chill had just 12 turnovers, less than half the total from their poor performance in the blustery conditions against Chicago.
Looking forward, the Wind Chill have a huge prove-it Friday night coming up against Atlanta. Minnesota’s outscored two overmatched Central opponents 63-31 in their two wins so far, but completed just 87 percent of their throws in their five-goal loss against Chicago. If the reigning champs aren’t more competitive at TCO Stadium against the Hustle, that would speak volumes about their potential ability to try and go back-to-back later this summer.
6. Atlanta's offense setting new standards
Through five weeks and 48 total games across the UFA, we’ve only seen five instances where a team finished with single digit turnovers. Three of those have come from the Atlanta Hustle.
The Hustle matched a season-low eight turns on Saturday against San Diego, completing 97 percent of their passes and going 10-for-10 on their hucks in a 23-19 triumph over the Growlers. San Diego, by the way, also represented itself well, only giving the disc away 12 times on the second night of their grueling southeast road trip.
But that’s now twice this season that the Hustle have had just eight giveaways in four quarters of frisbee, matching the team’s Week 3 performance at Los Angeles. Atlanta also had just nine turnovers in their season opening victory over Salt Lake. And the Hustle had just 10 turns in their May 17 win over Carolina.
Overall, the Hustle are averaging 11.5 turnovers per game, which is on pace to be the best possession preserving season in UFA history. Of course, these numbers could take a hit at two notoriously windy venues—and against a pair of tough, motivated D-lines—this coming weekend, as Atlanta travels to Minnesota and Chicago.
As for the Growlers, even after Saturday’s setback against the Hustle, they are sitting at 4-2 and comfortably in playoff position in third place in the South Division. Both losses have come in close games against the 6-0 Hustle, and Friday’s double OT victory at Carolina was a massive result, both for their reputation, and even more importantly in the postseason race.
7. The poor Cascades "dropped pull" in Oakland
Amidst all the huge plays and dramatic moments over the course of the weekend, arguably the biggest ‘Wow!’ came in Oakland, when Seattle endured an embarrassing turnover while receiving the pull. It’s been a season of tough luck at times for the Cascades, and this sequence was seemingly symbolic of the team’s excruciating struggles.
Here was the situation: Oakland led 12-9 with 6:19 left in the third. The game was far from being out of reach. And Seattle was setting up to receive Morgan Sommer’s backhand pull.
Marc Muñoz was preparing to catch the pull and center it to Derek Mourad. But Mourad took his eyes off the pull, turning his head from the downfield cutters and toward Muñoz. As the disc stunningly doinked off the back of Mourad’s head and landed on the ground, his astonished teammates could only watch in disbelief.
Two throws later, the Spiders break made it 13-9, and the Oakland lead grew as big as seven in the fourth before the Cascades scored the last two goals in their 21-16 setback.
Remarkably, the Spiders are now 5-0 and one of five remaining undefeated teams in the league. Meanwhile, one year after returning to Championship Weekend, the Cascades have reached the middle of their season at a bewildering 1-5.
The Hammer
The UFA season always changes after Memorial Day Weekend, as top college players from around the country rejoin their pro teams and shift the shape of the championship chase.
Arguably, no team is poised to benefit more from this development than the Colorado Summit. After their Week 5 win over Oregon, Colorado’s presently 2-2 and in third place in the West, but they’ll play the final two-thirds of their schedule with a significantly boosted roster.
Just four days after competing in the championship game at College Nationals on Monday, Tobias Brooks, Elliot Hawkins, Nanda Min-Fink, and Zeke Thoreson are all expected to make their 2025 UFA debuts for the Summit on Friday evening against undefeated Oakland. While Min-Fink and Thoreson both suited up for the Summit last year, it’ll be the first opportunity to see Brooks and Hawkins in Summit jerseys, as they played for the Flyers and AlleyCats, respectively, in 2024.
In addition, the Houston Havoc are expected to have University of Texas star Xavier Fuzat for their two-game trip to Los Angeles and San Diego. And the New York Empire will activate rookie Ethan Lieman, fresh off his sophomore season helping UMass reach the semifinals at College Nationals, onto their roster for Sunday’s trip to Toronto.
There are 13 games on the schedule both this week and next week, and as the calendar flips to June, the playoff picture will continue to evolve. We’ve already seen so many stunning scores through the first month of the season, with nothing more surprising than the four teams that made Championship Weekend last August starting the 2025 campaign with a combined record of 5-12!
Presently, the four division favorites appear to be Boston in the East, Atlanta in the South, Chicago in the Central, and Oakland in the West. Can these teams hang onto to their elite status, or will more turbulence rock the standings in the weeks and months ahead?
It’s gonna be an exhilarating journey toward the playoffs, and the drama continues with another great Week 6 slate that’s just two days away.
