Aviators Strike Back: A Shred Story

May 4, 2024

By Quincey McKeen

The Salt Lake Shred faced the Los Angeles Aviators on Saturday, May 4th. The game took place at Great Park Championship Stadium, a new venue for the Aviators. The enthusiastic crowd embraced the Star Wars theme and the commentators had the force on their side with their Star Wars references. 

The game got off to a rocky start for the Aviators. A great mark from Nathan Huff forced a turn, which Shred capitalized on for the score. Several Aviator errors allowed Shred to break four more times, bringing the score to 5-0. The Aviators managed to hold once and break once, before Shred took over for the rest of the quarter, with a Sean Connole to Ben Field score and two more breaks. For the first break, Chad Yorgason got a hand block and d-offense worked it patiently outside the end zone until Ben Ashton shot the assist to Joe Merrill for the score. Then the Aviators turned it over and Gene L’Heureux hucked it to Kyle Weinberg, who laid out and then threw a no-look lefty pass to Simon Dastrup for the score. The quarter ended 8-2 for Shred. 

The second quarter began with a great block from Aviator’s player Garrett Santi, deflecting a huck from Luke Yorgason to Grant Lindsley. The subsequent Aviator’s huck was reeled in past two Shred defenders for the break. Both sides went on to trade holds with both teams showing patience and good movement. Shred looked very comfortable throwing hammers and scoobers to get over the Aviator double-team, until a blade from Jordan Kerr fell short of a scrambling Lindsley. Aviators called a timeout and scored. The next point began with an amazing heads-up D from Mitchell Steiner, who snatched the frisbee before Jace Duennebeil could reel it in on a give and go. Steiner immediately called a timeout, which unfortunately led to a turnover because the Aviators had used their two timeouts for that half already. Shred went on to score and despite some great moments from the Aviators in the next point, they could not score before time ran out. Shred took half 13-8. 

In the third quarter, the Aviators showed their grit as they fought to get back into the game. “Rebellions are built on hope,” and the Aviator fans started getting hopeful as the Shred’s lead narrowed to three points. Errors on both sides allowed some breaks: an Aviator fake went awry and Shred broke; a throw to Kerr bounced off his fingers and Aviator’s Everest Shapiro reeled in a big huck for an Aviator score. Impressive moments for the Aviators included a big D from Andrew Padula and a great read from Bryan Nguyen to track down a huck, past two Shred defenders and another Aviator player. The Aviators scored with 4.5 seconds left in the quarter, bringing the score to 18-15. 

The fourth quarter began with Kerr throwing a high arcing blade to get it off a sideline trap -“it’s a trap!” Duennebeil had a big grab and Shred held with a goal from Connole to Jacob Miller. Both teams held before an overthrown Aviator huck gave Shred another break chance. Shred d-offense was content to swing and swing, before they found their chance to punch it in for a score. With 1:46 left in the game, the Aviators got a break after a great pull set them up well, which brought the score to 22-20, the closest of the night. Shred held for the next point and then forced a turn in the final moments of the game and maintained until the time ran out. Final score 23-20 for Shred, making them 3-0 for the season and the #1 team in the West Division.