Ryan Baker
This past weekend the Madison Radicals saw their most success during the 2023 season. On July 21, the Radicals traveled down to Chicago to play the Union, winning 22-17. The very next night, Madison won 18-15 when they went back to Breese Stevens Field for their season finale against Detroit.
It was an odd weekend when it came to who was active in each game. In the Chicago game, head coach Tim DeByl had Andrew Meshnick, Victor Luo and Henry Goldenberg at his disposal, but all three were absent from the final home game. On the other hand, Sterling Knoche, Sam Stark and Thomas Coolidge were opposite by being gone for the Chicago game but playing in the Detroit game.
The Radicals went into the weekend knowing Chicago didn’t have anything to play for and some of their top players would be resting up for an incoming playoff game. They took full advantage of the weak Union team breaking them eleven times over the course of the game. Five of those breaks came in the third quarter alone, leading the Radicals to outscore the Union 9-5 in those twelve minutes.
The D-line helped carry the game as Madison saw their O-line continuing to have major struggles. The O-line conversion rate was at 40% for the first game of the weekend including 14 throwaways. Everything else seemed to be clicking from the D-line’s conversion rates to completed hucks to red zone conversation rates.
Star veteran Victor Luo led the team in throwing yards once again in his final game of 2023 and added five hockey assists. The wealth was spread around in this one with eleven different players scoring at least one goal, but Meshnick came out with a team-leading four goals.
On the defensive side, Madison forced twelve blocks with half of them coming from just two different guys. Jake Carrico and rookie Joe Leibforth both had three blocks, meanwhile Anthony Gutowsky walked away with a Callahan.
Riding the momentum of a revenge win against Chicago, the Radicals saw a much closer game the next night when the defeated Mechanix came to town. To begin the game, DeByl saw his team down 3-6 at the end of the first quarter. However, that didn’t last long when Madison bounced back with an 8-3 second quarter giving them an 11-9 lead heading into half.
That’s where the lead stayed around the rest of the game, Detroit was able to tie up the game two times in the second half but never took the lead again. After a three-point run at the end of the game, Madison walked away with the win.
The O-line looked a bit better in this one, achieving a 71% hold rate, but the game was decided more so on Detroit making more mistakes than the Radicals. Detroit had 21 turnovers, two more than Madison. Detroit failed to convert 13 of their 17 break chances and that is what kept them without a win on the season.
Avery Johnson had an incredible game with a game-leading five goals. Johnson also led the team in receiving yards with 237, giving him a total of 363 yards on the day which also led the team. Knoche was able to come up with a team-leading two blocks in his return to action, and also arguably had the game-saving catch when Madison was 17-15 with just over a minute left in the game.
Kelsen Alexander threw a disc that floated just out of the reach of Kai DeLorenzo that ended up in no-man's land between two Detroit defenders. Knoche saw the disc floating, put a foot in the ground back towards it and left his feet to make the diving catch through the hands of the Detroit defender in front of him.
That catch surely iced the game when it led to Madison holding the disc until an eventual throwaway, but that time after Knoche’s layout catch left only 25 seconds on the clock.
After a 2-0 weekend, the Radicals finished the 2023 season with a 4-8 record. Being that it was a disappointing season, ending the year on a win streak and with a +3 point differential showed some potential and hope for things to come for one of the most prolific programs in the history of the sport.
