Ryan Baker
This game had a much different storyline than the previous. On June 17, the Minnesota Wind Chill came to Madison to play the Radicals and took home the “Game of the Week” 24-19.
The night began to go in Madison’s favor. After getting broken the first point, Madison strung together three straight points and went up 3-1. However, the rest of the quarter went towards Minnesota, ending 6-5 with the Radicals just barely hanging on to the lead.
Coming out of the second quarter, the Wind Chill applied the pressure getting three straight breaks and taking the quarter by a five point margin. That put the score at 12-8 going into half. It was an odd showing from head coach Tim DeByl’s crew.
The Radicals are historically a low-huck team. They opt for swinging the disc between the handlers, tiring out the defense and picking their moments. That wasn’t the case at all during this game. Madison attempted a season-high 18 hucks as opposed to Minnesota’s 13. It wouldn’t be an issue if these throws were completed, but they weren’t as half of them were incomplete.
“Those weren't scripted. Those were not what we were looking to do. We just did not play well under pressure,” said DeByl. “We just took a shot any time someone saw something that looked halfway decent, they just took it. We had lots of opportunities to score easy goals and we turned them into very difficult throws.”
The third quarter provided some hope for the fans at Breese Stevens Field as two straight breaks and an Andrew Meshnick callahan tied up the game at 13 apiece. That was the second one for Meshnick on the season, both coming in clutch moments.
“I have to give a lot of credit to Biz Schlaefer because he got down there, forced the initial pass, just made him throw a lateral and then I was kind of the beneficiary of some other tight handler defense,” said Meshnick. “So it's nice to get that one. I thought that was going to be the turning point in the game. Unfortunately, they ended up with a few other breaks and regained the lead but that was such a pleasure. Always fun.”
The third quarter had an end score of 17-15 in the Wind Chill’s favor, and after a meltdown on offense on a few different points from Madison the game was put out of reach. They went down three right away to open up the final quarter, and the deficit grew from there.
Statistically, it was Madison’s worst game of the season. They lost by the most they have this season, had a porous completion percentage on hucks and gave and allowed the Wind Chill to complete 12 of 15 break chances. .
Some highlights from a lackluster game was David Nester making his first appearance of the year after breaking his ankle at the end of January earlier this year. Nester put up five goals, including a layout goal off of a deflection with 206 receiving yards.
Joe Leibforth had three blocks during the game, including a huge layout block on an undercut that led to a score. While rookie Anthony Gutowsky led the team in receiving yards for a third game in a row with 226. However, Gutowsky was guarded by highly-touted defender in Paul Krenik most of the game who stifled Gutowsky at moments and came away with three blocks himself.
With the loss, it drops Madison to 1-5 on the season. Officially making each game the rest of the way a must-win to even see a chance at playoff contention. Meanwhile, it brings Minnesota’s record to 6-1 still atop the Central Division.
The Radicals will look to bounce back with their second-straight home game on Friday, June 23 against the Indianapolis AlleyCats at 7 p.m. CDT.
