Photo by Meghan White

Article by Nate Church

A monsoon in Minneapolis welcomed the Salt Lake Shred and Minnesota Wind Chill to the field on an interdivisional matchup between the playoff-seeking Shred and the undefeated Wind Chill.

The rain poured and the wind blew as the opening pull flew through the air. The moment hands touched the disc, one would have thought championship weekend came early. Both the Shred and Wind Chill traded blows to open the match, playing like the championship was on the line.

The Wind Chill drew first blood, scoring quickly slicing through the Shred defense. On a short 9-yard pass, William Brandt found former Shred player Nate De Morgan for the score. In immediate response, the Shred’s Chad Yorgason hucked a 59-yard bomb downfield to a sprinting Jordan Kerr.

Within a minute and a half of the opening pull, both teams had put two points up on the board.

The monsoon had mercy and slowly the rain subsided and the Minnesota sun lit the field.

The fast start translated into the first and second quarters for the Wind Chill, but the Shred stalled out. 

Minnesota went on to score seven more points in the first quarter, taking advantage of a turnover-plagued Salt Lake. Meanwhile, Salt Lake’s hot offensive start was all for naught. The offense struggled to hold onto the disc and capitalize on mistakes.

By the end of the first quarter, Salt Lake only put two more points on the board, losing the quarter 9-4.

The scoring domination continued for the Wind Chill, who finished the half with a 100% hold rate. Salt Lake struggled, ending the half going 0-for-7 on break chances. 

At the half, the undefeated Wind Chill continued to roll, going up 13-6.

Coming out of the half, Salt Lake caught two huge breaks.

Looking more decisive right out of the gate, Salt Lake capitalized on two Wind Chill turnovers. The first came from an errant hammer throw from Minnesota. After a couple of quick passes, Oscar Brown hucked the disc 43 yards to Anthony Mounga. Without hesitation, Mounga tossed the disc to Reed Browning, who immediately launched it to a wide-open Derik Knighton for the score.

The second came from an extended drive by the Shred. After picking up the turnover, they marched down the field and the Kerr-to-Brown connection earned them their second break point.

Salt Lake continued to look more confident and composed as the third quarter continued steadily on. While Minnesota tried its best to pull away, turnovers and missed opportunities led to their lowest scoring quarter thus far with only three added points.

The fourth quarter opened with an electrifying Callahan point by Salt Lake’s Ben Ashton. Sneaking in front of the Wind Chill’s Paul Krenick, Ashton appeared out of nowhere and easily stole the disc out of the air. The Callahan point was the first of Ashton’s career and sixth in Shred history.

As the fourth quarter waned, Salt Lake’s poor first quarter performance came back to haunt it. Despite outscoring Minnesota in the quarter, the Shred couldn’t manage to crawl back into legitimate comeback territory.

A exhaustive 90-second break point, with only four minutes left to play, by Salt Lake ultimately put the nail in its own coffin. Even though they pulled within four points, an intuitive defensive decision to switch to zone defense by the Wind Chill kept the Shred at bay.

Final score: Minnesota 20, Shred 16

Despite a tough loss and quenched fourth-quarter comeback, Salt Lake had a strong second half showing to cap off its final weekend away from home, a weekend that they split 1-1.

The Shred will travel back home for the rest of the season, where they will take on the king of the West Division, the Oakland Spiders, twice in the final three weeks of the season.