Ryan Baker - Journalist
It was a tough game for the Madison Radicals. On May 24, the Radicals hosted the Minnesota Wind Chill in their home opener of the season, losing 21-17.
Madison was coming off of a hot start to the season, scoring over 23 goals in each of their first two games of the year. They knew they were going to be met with a tough Wind Chill team, who were playing with a chip on their shoulder after dropping their own home opener.
The first quarter seemed to go in Madison’s favor until the very end of it. A long first point resulted in a stall called on Minnesota on the end zone line, which the Radicals were able to drive all the way down the field to take the opening point. Then, a bookends [getting the block and scoring in the same point] sequence on the next point by Joe Leibforth, gave Madison a 2-0 lead.
A couple points later, Pat Shriwise, who made his 2024 debut, threw up a prayer late in the stall count, and rookie Gabe Vordick came down with it in the endzone over multiple defenders. Still in the first quarter, Anthony Gutowsky snatched a callahan that got the crowd rocking. However, at the end of the quarter, a stall was called on Kelsen Alexander that gave Minnesota a shot to the endzone that they came down with, cutting Madison’s lead to just one.
The second quarter provided some issues when Minnesota went on a three-point run to open it up. Then, the weather hit. With a couple minutes left in the second quarter, and Madison down by one, a lightning delay went into effect with a few minutes left in the half.
“I thought we played well to start, but we had a couple mistakes that cost us at the end of the first quarter. Coming out half, they just seemed like they were running harder than we were. They seemed like they were more ready to play,” said head coach Tim DeByl.
From that point on, the crowd couldn’t get back to where they were in the first quarter. The weather was stormy all day, and may have affected the attendance of the game, along with many people leaving after the weather delay. Even with all of that, there were still 709 people in attendance for the home opener.
“I don’t think it affected us anymore than it affected them. Maybe, they did a better job of warming up, but they get a couple breaks and the energy train just went their way,” said DeByl.
Despite, DeByl’s comments, it was after the delay that things started to fall apart for Madison. They gave up a five-point run in the third quarter that allowed Minnesota that much of a lead. Additionally, their O-line went 5/11 on conversions in the second half.
“I think not having our O-line coach was just really hard. It puts a lot of burden on the players to sort of do the coaching, and everyone has their own perspectives. He has such a steady outlook on everything, so it’s hard to get back from a lightning delay without your main O-line coach,” said Kai Marcus.
The fourth quarter had some bright spots as the Radicals went on a three-point run of their own that included some layout blocks that got the crowd slightly back into it. However, it just wasn’t enough to propel them over the hump. A zone defense from Minnesota prevented Madison from getting big yardage chunks, which drew a ton of time from the clock.
Overall, it was a tough loss, but there is still a ton of potential in this Radicals team. Marcus is back and playing at an incredibly high level, but he also understands that he makes some mistakes, and is trying to get into the right flow.
“I feel like it’s hard to get in the right flow. I’ve been thinking a lot about how there are two flows that I can really get into. One is where I really push my boundaries, and the other is playing really conservative. I’m trying to come up the valley on both sides, and ride that peak in the middle. I felt like I had my first taste of that in this game,” said Kai Marcus.
Marcus walked out with 714 total yards, which is the sixth-most we’ve seen in a game from the entire league this season, and seven assists. Meanwhile, Anthony Gutowsky got back on track after a quiet game in Detroit last week. Gutowsky snatched that callahan, and added on five goals, three blocks, and 177 receiving yards.
“I was just trying to get open. I think the lightning delay really messed us up. That really threw off our rhythm. We need to turn the disc over less, and be more on the same page going forward,” said Anthony Gutowsky.
The Radicals will look to get on that same page that Gutowksy mentions next week with a two-game weekend against the Chicago Union and a rematch with Detroit at home on Sunday Evening.
