By Bailey Saul
June 26, 2021
RALEIGH - Records can be misleading. Take the 0-2 Raleigh Flyers and the 2-0 Philadelphia Phoenix. As the Friday night game in Raleigh started in a light rain the announcers talked about how important the weekend was going to be for the Phoenix to see where they stand against the best teams in the division and for Raleigh to prove that their two 1 point losses were aberrations, just the growing pains of a young team against two of the powers in the mighty, eight team Atlantic Division, Atlanta and the DC Breeze. The Phoenix took two minutes to work their first possession down to the Raleigh goal line only to have a short Sands hammer to Damiano at the near cone blocked.
In fact the first point took over half of the first quarter as each team turned the disc over five times, some on goal shots, a one handed drop by Heyman for the Phoenix, a goal line inside block by Martin who was helped up by Flyer’s Richardson, and even a rare Arcata turn on what looked like a huge hammer that slipped out of his hand and fell short in the misty mist.
After another two turns, including a D by Mott on Noah Saul (your humble reporter’s middle son) that Saul was sure was a strip but was ruled down at about the five, the Phoenix took a few throws to move up field before Mike Arcata called a time out at 5:48 left in the first quarter. The game clock kept running to under 4 minutes and had to be adjusted before play restarted, but when it did, Matt Ellis simply dropped the wet disc on a scoober fake he meant to hold, and Raleigh took just two throws to score and finally get the first point and their first break of the game on an Elijah Long laser to David Richardson.
The Phoenix gave the disc back again on a Mott misthrow of a bladey backhand that looked as if it slipped out of his hand and fell short of his target in the back of the end zone. Raleigh broke again to go up 2-0. On Philadelphia’s next possession Matt Glazer had a nice Butrica bomb in his hands in the end zone but bobbled it right into the defender’s hands and Raleigh went back the other way. Mother Nature was already becoming the proverbial 8th man on D for each team, but the Phoenix were clearly having the most trouble.
It was evident from the start that Raleigh was expecting these deep shots by the Phoenix and they seemed to have the right matchups early on to defend them effectively. This turn happened with less than 3 minutes left in the quarter and this time the game clock was off, having never started back up as Raleigh worked the disc from left to right downfield to score their third break and a 3-0 lead. The clock caught up (1:32) just as the next pull was caught.
The Phoenix finally got on the board with just 0:30 seconds left in the quarter on a Damiano 30 yarder to Sands who made a great leaping catch over Tim McAllister, one of the Flyers’ primary pullers, who always seemed to be in the thick of things defensively. But the first appearance of the Philadelphia defense did not go as hoped, when Henry Fisher took a deep shot high over James Pollard who made a good play but didn’t have the position to get there first. 4-1 Raleigh, as scoreboard and clock issues continued, with 3-1 showing on the scoreboard until well after Raleigh’s Josh Hartzog and Dave Richardson (and the crossbar) D’d up Marc Sands’ high floater with 0:03 that went through the uprights but then floated back through them again, skipping off the crossbar into the defense and falling into the end zone to end the first quarter.
The Flyers scored easily to open the second in just under a minute with a Fisher to Terrence Mitchell flick to the far cone from 20 yards out, and go up 5-1. After a turnover by each team, Philly was having trouble getting the disc out of their own end zone with the rain increasing in intensity and Sands tossed a gentle dump pass to space as Martin cut the opposite direction and Raleigh had the disc back on the goal line with predictable results, a one pass goal to go up 6-1 on their fourth break.
Sean Mott felt the effects of the now steady rain and/or wind when he went long from his own 40 and the disc just turned sideways and fell down halfway to its target. The announcers thought it might have been touched but on replay it just went bad. But the disc rolled downfield and into the end zone giving the Flyers possession on the line. After moving it to midfield Davis had a perfect throw skip out of his hands to Scott Heyman who started the other way in the same rhythm of the Flyers O, and Mott and Glazer worked the disc until Mott had a shot to a Greg Martin who made a great catch as defender Dave Richardson closed in to get the second score for the Phoenix, 6-2. But again, Raleigh answered with a methodical trip down field, helped by a contact foul at the 25, to go up 7-2.
The next two plays were emblematic of the Phoenix’s night. First, Mott dropped the pull, possibly the most embarrassing play in ultimate, right up there with being scored on for a Callahan. Then, with the disc on the goal line, Noah Saul walked up and got the goal to Seth Weaver, his third, on a lunging backhand around Marc Sands, 8-2. It felt like that was the crusher. Indeed, on the following drive the Phoenix moved the disc well until a penalty set them back 10 yards, and the very next throw was dropped, allowing Raleigh to go the other way and score again to Weaver with just over four minutes left in the half, 9-2.
Philadelphia turned it over again with their offensive starters taking a point off on a small but deadly mistake at midfield, after seeming to generate some flow. And Raleigh again accepted their gift to quickly make it 10-2. The Phoenix would record a total of 32 turns on the night, to Raleigh’s 18, a surefire recipe for defeat.
But thankfully they managed to work it up well against a Raleigh D that had many of their younger players on the field in their next possession and Greg Martin got another of his game high four goals on a nice leading sideline throw from Arcata, but it was now 10-3 with under two minutes in the half. And Raleigh moved the frisbee well back downfield to finish with an Eric Taylor to Sol Yanuck goal for 11-3 at 1:14 left.
After an Arcata slipped throw turnover Saul hucked a deep backhand with two receivers out front that couldn’t quite be reached by Bloodworth, and again he game clock, which had not stopped with under 30 seconds left, was showing double zeroes but there were actually 19 seconds still on the clock as Philadelphia turned it again when Martin must have thought he was closer to the sideline than he was, and Raleigh got a quick 12th goal on a Hartzog to Long pass with 0:09 seconds left, and a 12-3 halftime score after Philly had a last shot blocked easily in the end zone.
The second half began with the Phoenix (wait for it) turning over, Raleigh returning the favor and Martin finding Arcata for the score. Raleigh answered in workmanlike fashion on a trip that ended with a layout grab by Juengst for the next score and Philly held on to the Frisbee and answered again with a nice series that ran up the far sideline and ended with a Martin to Arcata goal to get to 13-5, as the rain began to let up some.
Raleigh’s defense was a big part of establishing their early lead, and that gave them the chance to get some of their younger players in who continued to answer the call on both sides of the field, as the Phoenix were outscored in every quarter, albeit by only 1 in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th.
Raleigh got their next score after T. Mitchell was fouled in the end zone when Witmer fell into him just enough to make him miss what would have been an easy catch, and he got the ‘bee on the line, then threw a high hammer through a tight double team to his wide open receiver to make it 14-5. But Philly could not stop the turnover binge and turfed their third throw, when it seemed Glazer tried to stop himself but couldn’t, and Raleigh cashed in almost immediately to get to 15-5.
And so it went, back and forth, turning the disc over to each other after a Raleigh score, with the turnover score, 32 to 18 as we mentioned, larger than the 23-11 goal Final, a testament to both the difficulty of the weather and the intensity and physicality of Raleigh’s defense especially, fueled by the desperation of an 0 - 2 team who knows they’re better and are playing a must win game. Martin had another nice catch, Pollard got his first assist to Little on the first Phoenix break with less than three minutes left in the third and there were a few nice defensive plays as well.
The Phoenix didn’t quit though, and despite an off-sides that helped Raleigh get another easy score, played hard to finish the game, the foregone conclusion notwithstanding. The turnovers on throws continued to plague Glazer and other Phoenix handlers even as it dried up late. But the defensive intensity never wavered on either side, forcing both offenses to be their best to score, highlighted partly with a nice Butrica layout of a low Martin backhand from seven yards out for the ninth goal, followed by another great Pollard pull.
In another example of disc karma with just over three minutes left in the fourth, Philadelphia had a receiver effectively blocked by a ref on the field when Pollard led Nick DiGiorgio towards the corner and he ran over the ref, both going down. Surprisingly there was no call or adjustment made, Raleigh’s Noah Saul picked up the disc at the cone and was immediately foot-blocked, the disc falling at the 10 or so and after a couple of throws, Matt Esser’s scoobery hammer to DiGiorgio was a hair to long for him to hold it on impact. But Raleigh overthrew a man deep and Nick D. made the catch of the night on a great layout goal deep in the end zone of a nice flick that had gone by him at the 15 or so for the tenth score.
After another turn, the Phoenix ended the game on a real positive note with yet another break by Little, bombing to Esser for the final score, 23-11. The game was not nearly as lopsided as the score would indicate in energy or effort, but some bad luck, a lot of rain assisted unforced errors, and an intense and unrelenting Flyer defense made mistakes all the more costly all night.
Tonight’s game at Atlanta will have a watch party Xfinity Live! near the South Philly Supersite and the Phoenix will have their hands full at 7:30 with the undefeated Hustle. I’ll have stat leaders for both games in the Atlanta Breakdown.
