Chi at Mad Recap

Ryan Baker, Journalist 

Last Friday night was meant to set things up for the final week of the season, and that’s exactly what happened for the Madison Radicals after their 21-13 win over the Chicago Union. 

The last two playoff spots in the Central Division were murky heading into last week. The Union, Radicals, and  AlleyCats were all in contention with a ton of possible scenarios. However, with the AlleyCats winning against Pittsburgh, and the Radicals beating the Union, the scene is set. 

“It's exciting. Playoffs come a week early for us. It's extra fun. We get to have a playoff game and hopefully another playoff game, and hopefully another playoff game. I think it's always exciting when you get a chance to play that type of game,” said head coach Tim DeByl.

If the Radicals win their final game, they will host a playoff game, but if they lose, they are most likely out of the playoffs. The Radicals are peaking at the right time, as they played the best frisbee they have all season on Friday. They had only eight incompletions all game, were perfect on hucks, were around 70% on hold percentage, had an 85% D-line conversion rate, and only failed to score on two of their red zone opportunities. 

“That was by far the best game we have played this year. I thought it was probably the best game we have played in a few years. We really shut down their initiation sets. We knew that they wanted to huck and they didn't want long possessions,” said head coach Tim DeByl.

There were three storylines that came from this past Friday at Breese Stevens Field. The first was the second quarter takeover by the Radicals. They were able to outscore the Union 7-1 in the second quarter, and walked out of the first half with a seven point lead after five straight breaks. This was the tone-setter for the rest of the game as the first half ended with an Anthony Gutwosky huck to Luke Marks, who reached over two Union defenders for the score at the buzzer. 

The second storyline was Andrew Meshnick taking sole possession of the record for regular-season career goals in franchise history. The original record was Colin Camp at 150, but after a bobbled potential score for the Union, Jack Kelly got the disc in transition just beyond midfield and gave Meshnick an easy score for his 151st regular season career goal. 

The third storyline was the return of two-time all-star Kevin Pettit-Scantling and veteran Kai DeLorenzo. Pettit-Scantling’s return to action got cut a bit short after a shoulder injury took him out of the game near the end of the second quarter. However, DeByl is hopeful that he will return for the regular season finale. As for DeLorenzo, he played 12 points, scored one goal, and played solid defense in his 2024 debut.

“Getting that first game out of the way for them was really good for us. We'll have to make some decisions about this upcoming week,” said DeByl.

The rest of the game was mostly back and forth with the Radicals outscoring the Union 8-7 in the second half. Madison was able to pull together their entire team and play consistently for four quarters. The offense played fluently and efficiently with the defense producing turnovers and converting on them, and this was without Kai Marcus, Kelsen Alexander and Gabe Vordick. 

The Radicals are riding high right now after two huge home wins in a row. They will need to make it three for their season to continue this upcoming weekend.

Get Tickets to the game Friday night at Breese vs Indianapolis.