Ryan Baker, Journalist
The season has officially come to an end for the Madison Radicals. The Cinderella-esque run stopped at the hands of the Minnesota Wind Chill this last Saturday night.
It was a season where no one expected the Radicals to not only make the playoffs, but especially not the Central Division Championship. The team struggled mightily with a Sea Foam Stadium specific wind, and being such an inexperienced squad. Out of the 16 players that played more than ten points this weekend, only five of them had playoff experience prior to this year. On the other side, Minnesota has been to four straight Central Division Championship games.
“The thing is that Minnesota came out and was not jittery at all and played a really clean game for this win. We didn't. You can't have as many turnovers as we did, but we're going to build on this. This is a good young team, and we had an incredible season,” said head coach Tim DeByl.
It was rough from the opening pull as within just a few throws Brian Hart was handblocked, and it gave Minnesota a short field to work with for the first break of the game. The external factors of the weather made things even harder with winds upwards of 16 mph, and the sun was blaring right in the eyes of the Madison sideline.
The first quarter ended in a tie at three, but the second quarter is where Madison continually shot themselves in the foot and Minnesota took advantage. A missed break huck opportunity by Kevin Pettit-Scantling to an intended Joshua Wilson, then a prayer throw by Andrew Meshnick in the same point started the downwards spiral. On the Meshnick throw, both Kelsen Alexander and Pettit-Scantling ran into each other, and had to be removed from the game temporarily.
The wind started to play much more of a factor as multiple mistimed jumps, drops, and floaty discs began to trouble the Radicals. Getting outscored 6-2 in the second quarter resulted in Madison being down four heading into halftime.
“We just never got into a rhythm tonight on offense, both our D-line offense and O-line offense. I thought we put effort out there, but we just weren't executing. Obviously, we weren't happy about that game, but we're happy about how the season went. We definitely played over what our expectations were internally to start the season,” said DeByl.
The beginning of the third quarter looked very similar to the second quarter. In the high-scoring third quarter, Madison was outscored 3-7 in the first ten points, and saw themselves down eight. However, a small run at the end of the quarter that included four straight scores pushed some life back into Madison. It just wasn’t enough to get out of the swell that they dug themselves into.
“I thought it was a frustrating way to end the season. I feel pissed. I felt like the wheels were just off from the start, and we didn't come with the right amount of intensity, and our execution just wasn't there,” said Kai Marcus.
The wheels fully fell off in the last quarter when the Radicals gave up a four-point run to Minnesota, and ended the game losing 14-23. For a team that led the league in breaks and D-line conversion all season, they only managed to grab four breaks on 16 opportunities throughout the game. Not to mention, Madison had 26 turnovers compared to Minnesota’s 18.
Offensively, the Radicals squeaked out with a 40% hold percentage, and were really hurt by not having one of their main disc handlers in Pat Shriwise. Without Shriwise, the safety blanket in the handler space was gone, which forced the disc into Marcus’s hands a lot more. Marcus has been on a tear in his return to play this season, but also has had games where he turns over the disc at a high clip. Marcus had 312 throwing yards in the playoff matchup, but also had five throwaways.
“You're missing your guy who gets open and keeps the disc alive most of the time. Especially, since that was our bread and butter for so many games. All those games that we won by a lot, when we were really in our stride, he was a part of that. So, it's hard. It's hard to lose a major player,” said Marcus.
Some noteworthy individual statistics belong to the likes of breakout player Mitchell McCarthy who grabbed four goals on the night, along with Luke Marks snagging three blocks and Kelsen Alexander who had three assists, one goal, and 349 total yards. Conversely, leading goal-scorer Anthony Gutowsky was kept quiet most of the night as he only had one goal and two throwaways, but led the team in receiving yards with 239.
It was a story of true home-field advantage, and inexperience for such a young team. Despite the disappointing loss, the 2024 season is something that Madison can hang their heads high on. Turning around a 4-8 team that finished under .500 for the first time in program history to an 8-4 team that made it to the Central Division Championship in just one offseason is something to be proud of.
The motivation is now there even more so for Madison. The 2025 season may be one for the books for this young Radicals squad.
“For me personally, it lit a huge fire under my ass.. I'm excited to get in the gym. I'm excited to be super athletic. I want to have the cardio and speed that I used to have when I was a freshman in college. I'm hoping everyone else is feeling that, too,” said Marcus.
