Ryan Baker
It’s time to see if the Madison Radicals can exact some revenge on the Indianapolis AlleyCats this upcoming Saturday.
Just a week ago, the latter traveled to the former and took a nail-biting game that came down to a one-score game. It was a game of runs between the two and that’s been the story all season. In the two games, Madison and Indy have both completed four separate three-point runs.
“It's going to change a little bit because going into this game we know they play indoors a lot. So we wanted them to huck more just because we wanted to go contest them,” said Joshua “J-Dub” Wilson. “With the indoor, we have to be one step ahead of them, because their hucks aren't going to hang indoors. So we have to really watch for that over the top help.”
Both teams look nearly identical from when they first played in the start of the season to now. For Madison, the only significantly different number is in the D-Line conversion percentage. It went from 63% in the first game to 78% in the second. Madison’s defense is finally looking back on track with the return of Sterling Knoche.
As for the AlleyCats, they have two sets of numbers that have wavered between the two games. One being their red zone conversion percentage. That spiked dramatically from 75% to 89%. The second was seeing a depletion in their block numbers. That went from 12 in the first matchup to just six in the second.
However, Madison is going to be lacking some key parts that may result in that conversion rate dropping back down. Players that won’t be playing on the road trip include: Kai DeLorenzo, Pat Schriwise, Sterling Knoche, Thomas Coolidge, Nico Ranahbat, Eric Blais and Brian Hart. That’s a long list of inactives to overcome, but DeByl doesn’t seem to be too worried considering they are going right back to play Indy.
“It's always nice to get to play a team again that you just lost to honestly. Our season isn't over, we still want to keep winning. We've never had a losing season. I'd rather be 6-6 than anything else,” said DeByl. “We're going to keep grinding at it. But yeah, it's tough..”
Players that haven’t seen the field that often this year are going to have to step up for the Radicals in a crucial game. Look for names such as Biz Schlaefer, David Nester, Matt Grinde and Mac Weber to come into play throughout the course of the game.
The core of Anthony Gutowsky, Ted Schewe and Victor Luo will looked upon to carry the load once again. Gutowsky has 11 of his goals this season on the AlleyCats, while Schewe has amassed over 200 receiving yards in both games and Luo has thrown for more than 400 yards in each of them.
The other core of Cameron Brock, Keegan North, Travis Carpenter and William Wettengel from Indy will look to overpower DeByl’s team for the third straight game. A win this weekend would give the AlleyCats their fourth straight win against Madison dating back to late last season. Indy has dominated the recent matchups, however the Radicals still hold the upper hand in the all-time series with a 23-5 record.
In the third of a three game set, eyes will be on the 1-6 Radicals to see if they can stretch their playoff hopes against the 6-2 AlleyCats in Indy on Saturday, July 1 at 6 p.m. CDT.
You can watch the game on AUDL.tv.
