Photo by Carter Schafer
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
The 2025 Championship rematch lived up to the hype. Minnesota hosted Boston on Saturday night in a scorcher and barely fell short, 20-21.
A problem Minnesota has had this season is slow starts. There have been a couple of games where they fell behind early but came back to win. In this one, they started slowly and rallied, but late-game execution errors cost them.
The game started out with a bang. Within the first 30 seconds, Boston shot a huck that put the first score of the night on the board, but Minnesota took just 20 seconds on the next point to answer with a huck of their own from Noah Coolman to Zach Morton.
The next few points were where the Wind Chill struggled and fell behind. After Dylan DeClerck got elbowed in the face on a throw, Minnesota had a chance to break the Glory, but a Coolman throw floated too high, giving the disc back to Boston. The Glory punched in the dirty hold, and then Gordon Larson and Morton miscommunicated on the next point, leading to a Boston break.
Minnesota answered back, but a few points later, a Greg Cousins huck was blocked, and Boston capitalized. Then Nate De Morgan got stalled right before he released a hammer to the end zone, and that ended in another break. By the end of the first quarter, the Wind Chill were down 3-7.
Photo by Josiah Phifer
“We came out a little quiet at the beginning,” Will Brandt said. “Our crowd was really quiet, and we just had some unforced errors. I'm really proud of the way we fought back in the fourth quarter. We had the ball to go up, and it was just mental errors. Definitely proud of the way we fought back, especially, but really wanted a few things back across the board.”
They started the second quarter on the right note with a Brandt high release backhand that ended in De Morgan’s hands. On the next point, Justin Burnett snatched a poach block that gave Minnesota its first break of the night. However, another miscommunication, this time between Ellis Newhouse and Josh Klane, turned into Boston expanding its lead back to four.
“It's been overall really great,” Newhouse said in his second career UFA game. “There were a couple of points where I found myself as the bailout reset handler, and I was clearly pretty uncomfortable. They allowed me to play a pretty fluid role, which is great and that’s where I thrive, but that's the area that I'm looking to improve the most.”
Photo by Ariana Golemis
That pattern continued until halftime. Minnesota would get a block and a break, then give it back with a miscommunication, erasing the work they had just put in. After a Boston drop near the end of the quarter, Brandt caught a huck from Klane to make it 10-12.
Boston took the first quarter, but Minnesota controlled the third from the jump. The Wind Chill forced a timeout in the first 20 seconds of the half after Boston was stalling in the back of its own end zone. Coming out of the timeout, Blake Krapfl and Micah Davis pressured the backfield and forced a stall. Davis punched in the goal for Owen Suelflow to get within one.
The tie came when Paul Krenik tapped the disc away from the outstretched arms of Tobe Decraene. Then Brandt and Cousins tied the game at 13.
Photo by Ariana Golemis
The final three Minnesota scores of the quarter were all gorgeous. Kristian Johnson launched a huck to Cousins, who ripped it down before his defender arrived. Coolman put one out to space for Klane, who turned on the jets. Finally, Klane got off a clean backhand huck at the buzzer that Morton rose up over eight people to grab. That final goal surged the energy at Sea Foam Stadium and tied the game at 17.
With 12 minutes left to go, the stage was set. The sun was setting, fans were getting louder, and the game was tied. Minnesota took its first lead of the game on the first point of the fourth quarter from a Larson to Cousins goal.
The next two points were tough for both teams. Both points lasted over three minutes, marked by late foul calls, turnovers, miscues, and physicality. Both went Boston’s way. On the first, Suelflow had two turns, including a turfed scoober on the goal line. On the second, Minnesota got the disc back on a foul call after an errant huck, but Boston answered with a layout block. The Wind Chill got another chance after a Glory drop, but another errant huck led to Boston cashing in and going up by one with just over three minutes left.
Photo by Josiah Phifer
“I feel like we're pretty well tested throughout the regular season,” Brandt said. “Knowing what it feels like to lose and how to dig and try to fight back is really important as it gets to the playoffs. It's only two games away at this point.”
The dagger came after Larson dropped a reset throw when he took his eyes off the disc too early. They did have one more shot, as Krenik threw an assist to a sliding Noah Hanson on the next point, but a methodical drive by the visitors put the game away.
“It sucks losing, but I was happy with our resilience,” Head Coach Ben Feldman said. “It felt like coming out of half; we had things where we wanted. We had a couple of break opportunities that didn't go our way. The execution errors piled up a bit.”
It was more of an offensive game than anything else. Boston kept flirting with dangerous throws and possession-saving grabs, but it worked out for them. Decraene was nearly unstoppable with his pinpoint blade throws, finishing with nine assists on the night.
Photo by Josiah Phifer
“It was really hard to get the disc from them, especially their O-line,” Brandt said. “Their defense was about as expected, but I was very impressed with their O-line.”
“It felt like they were saving some crazy stuff,” Feldman said. “We were forcing some hard throws, and they were making crazy catches. They finished the fourth quarter extremely hot. Boston’s a good team. We feel like if we play our A game, this is a different situation.”
The stats show how evenly matched these teams were on Saturday night. They were within 2 percent of each other in hold percentage, O-line conversion rate, completion percentage, and D-line conversion rate. Both teams had seven blocks, and Minnesota had just one more turnover than Boston. Boston went 4-4 on hucks while Minnesota was 8-10, and Minnesota failed to convert six red zone opportunities while Boston only failed on two of them.
As the team has done all year, it was a well-rounded performance in terms of individual stats. Brandt led the team with four assists; Larson followed with three, and five players had two assists. There were also five guys with three goals on the night: Cousins, De Morgan, Morton, Newhouse, and Suelflow.
Photo by Josiah Phifer
“It means a lot,” Newhouse said about his success. “The reason that I'm playing for the Wind Chill is to be able to feel this environment, feel the pressure, and feel all the fans and the love from them. To be able to thrive in this setting is important to me.”
It was a tough outcome, as Minnesota suffered its first loss of the season, but some people may think it was good that the Wind Chill took that loss now, so they don’t have the added pressure of an undefeated season heading into the playoffs. Either way, this game didn’t mean much to Minnesota's overall outlook; it would only put them below Boston if both teams made Championship Weekend.
“We got a lot of valuable things from the game,” Feldman said. “It's a wake-up call. We still have to keep working, improving, and we got what we needed as a team out of this game.”
For now, the team will be looking to close the season strong when they host the Madison Radicals on the final day of the 2026 regular season.
