April 30, 2026
By Alex Rubin
At the historic Stadium at Memorial Field in Mt. Vernon, NY, the new look New York Empire will make their season debut on “Friday Night Frisbee” against the Toronto Rush. Alongside mainstay stars Marques Brownlee, Jack Williams, Ben Jagt, and John Randolph, off-season pickups Alex Atkins, Alex Davis, Braden Eberhard, and Nicholas Whitlock are all set to play their first game for the Empire this week.
For those hoping to see MVP candidate and fellow first-year Empire star Daan De Marrée, he is not yet stateside but should feature later this season for the Empire, perhaps as soon as next week. For the players on the field, this game is a chance to get their season started on the right foot. Last year, New York lost their season opener and stumbled through an up-and-down regular season before falling to the DC Breeze in the first round of the playoffs. This year, the Empire have championship aspirations. A division win in their first game will see them keep pace with the Boston Glory, last season’s champions who are 1-0 after their convincing win against DC last week.
Toronto will also welcome some new faces, as the Rush hope to push away a disappointing 2025 season that saw the team miss the playoffs after entering the year with lofty goals. Gagan Chatha, who last played in the UFA back in 2017 for the Vancouver Riptide, is active to make his Rush debut this weekend. In the intermittent time between his UFA stints, Chatha has become one of the most consistent throwers in the world. His performance for Canada’s World Games team last summer was one of the driving factors in their second-place finish (to Brownlee and Team USA).
Toronto and New York are historically the two most successful teams in the East Division. During the early years of the UFA, Toronto was one of the top teams in the league. The Rush won the 2013 title and made Championship Weekend every year through 2017. In 2018, though, New York upset Toronto in the playoffs and started their own dynasty, making Championship Weekend every year from 2018 through 2023 while winning three titles.
The teams’ performances against each other matches their outlook in the league. Toronto won every game against the Empire from their inception in 2013 until New York pulled off a stunning 18-17 upset in the 2018 playoffs. Since then, the Empire won every game in this matchup until last summer in Week 6. Now more evenly matched, each team will be working to integrate new players while keeping their early-season hope alive.
For the Empire, Atkins will certainly take a leading role on offense. A prolific thrower, he will be equally adept launching longballs to Jagt as he will be playing backfield smallball with Williams. Though he might be less known in the United States, Whitlock, who is from New Zealand, is likely to start for the Empire O-line too. He is also a very talented thrower who will be able to stretch the field with his throwing range and his especially deadly hammer. Eberhard and Davis are both known quantities in the league, playing multiple seasons in the past for Salt Lake and Carolina respectively. Eberhard will likely fill a backfield role, while Davis is one of the league’s fastest players and will do his damage downfield.
Seeing how New York integrates their new players alongside their existing stars will be very interesting as so many of their players have dynamic skillsets that allow them to thrive on offense or defense. Of the 20 players rostered for this game, 12 have played full seasons on a UFA O-line in the past. Last season, the Empire’s D-line conversion percentage was in the middle of the pack, ranking 12th among 24 teams. With more offensive talent on the team, this year the team can expect to be more efficient at scoring their counterattack chances.
While New York is certainly favored in this game, the Rush will be equally interesting to watch. While some of their newcomers are not playing in this game, fans will get to see the return of Akifumi Muraoka, the UFA debut of Logan Keillor, the Rush debut of Evan Bembenista (who was very effective in limited action with Pittsburgh last season), and of course Chatha’s UFA return after seven seasons away.
The Rush do turn over a very significant amount of starters (by my count, the Rush have to replace 1935 minutes played from starters last season), but they have plenty of hungry, young players ready to step up into a bigger role. What better time to make a mark than “Friday Night Frisbee”?
