Photo Credit: Darrin Fry
August 10, 2024
Quincey McKeen
As the final playoff game of the series, the West Division Championship put on quite the show! With the other three division championship games wrapped up, this game determined the final contender to advance to UFA’s Championship Weekend. The Salt Lake Shred and the Seattle Cascades faced off again in another battle for Best in the West. Their first game three weeks ago determined the #1 seed going into the playoffs, which the Shred won 18 to 16. This game was for the West Division Championship title and a spot in the final four. Who would pull it off this time?
The night started with a solid hold from Seattle and the beginning of a seven-assist game for Seattle’s Spencer Lofink: he threw the first goal to Aaron Wolf. The holds continued, with Shred scoring off a Sean Connole huck to Ben Field, who ripped it down under defensive pressure. After trading a couple more holds, the Cascades got their first break after a doozy of a point. A Shred swing went awry, but the Cascades immediately turned it. Another Shred swing missed its target and Seattle worked it down field to score, but a Seattle timeout right before the goal lost them the point. Seattle was able to score again after the timeout, after really working it outside the end zone and with a very tight toe-the-line grab. The score was now 2-4. A tricky wind proved the downfall of many an upline pass and led to the Shred’s first break, with a quick pass to Alex Forsberg. This tied the game 4-4. The holds continued, with Ben Ashton and Matt Russnogle playing very tight defense, but unable to get the turn. Seattle scored the final point of the half with Lofink’s fifth assist of the quarter.
The second quarter saw some exciting Shred breaks. McKay Yorgason had a great layout snag, digging out a pass from his brother, Chad. He swung it back to Chad who hit Simon Dastrup for the goal. The Shred got their first lead of the night, 8-7. A few holds later, Chad Yorgason had a huge D on a Seattle huck. Ashton picked up and immediately ripped it deep to Snog for the goal, expanding the Shred’s lead 10-8. The Cascades managed to get one break back of their own before the final point of the half, which was an absolutely wild one. Seattle started on offense. Jonny Hoffman was playing tight defense and went up for a second attempt D on one of those now infamous floaty uplines. He landed hard and unfortunately had to come off the field with an injury. The Cascades continued working it down the field until Eugene L’Heureux picked off a pass with a great poach. The Shred worked it down to their end zone quickly but were unable to score. The Cascades started their foray but Ashton got the layout D and quickly dished it to Grant Lindsley with mere seconds left on the clock. Lindsley threw it immediately and Tony Mounga made an epic play to catch it and keep a foot inbounds, but the refs said time had expired. Meanwhile, Coach Merrill had been emphatically calling for a timeout on the far sideline. The refs consulted…and put 2 seconds back on the clock. The Shred came out of the timeout and Chad picked up the frisbee, surrounded by a Cascade double team. He threw the immediate blade to Kyle Weinberg, for the goal! The first half ended 12-10 for the Shred.
The Shred was fired up now! They broke out of half, with a great handblock from Connole and a Weinberg to Forsberg huck. After trading a couple holds, the Cascades came back strong, with three breaks in a row. The wind-curse got the Shred and two floaty throws led to Shred turns and eventual Cascade goals. The third break was earned by Lukas Ambrose with a huge layout D. The third break allowed the Cascades to take the lead again, 14-15. The Shred scraped out two more holds, with a Snog huck to Nathan Huff, who dished it to Chad, and a Jordan Kerr huck to Jace Duennebeil, who laid out for the goal. In the final point of the quarter, a Shred huck went just a hair too far, but the Shred defense kept the Cascades from capitalizing. Still, the quarter ended 16-17 for Seattle.
Seattle continued to widen their lead with two breaks to open the fourth quarter. They got a block on a floaty upline for one break and a big D from Jack Brown led to the second break. With the score at 16-19, the Shred needed to turn it on ASAP. And they did! There was a huge Ashton huck that Snog chased down with all his heart, laying out and sliding head-first into the boards. He couldn’t make the catch, but he hopped up quickly, thankfully uninjured from his epic crash. Seattle threw away their break chance and Dastrup caught the quick flip for the goal. The Shred utilized their amazing pullers, rolling pulls out the sideline and setting up the double team. For the first break, the Cascades turned it with an errant hammer and the Shred worked it for a Lindsley to Weinberg goal. Seattle escaped the second double team, but turned it on the other side of the field with a floaty upline. Ashton scores to tie the game, with four minutes left to go. The Seattle hold, adapting to the short sideline pull and getting the frisbee off the line with an impressive throw. Two minutes and 30 seconds left, and Seattle was up one. The Shred hold, one minute and 14 seconds left. Seattle held, with a Garrett Martin score just inside the front end zone line. With 31 seconds left in the game, the Shred worked it down the field until they were just outside the end zone, pinned on the far sideline. With seconds left, they couldn’t quite get a throw off and the time expired, leaving a heartbroken Shred crowd, but some exultant Settle fans.
Martin, a Utah-native, had a great game, with three assists and four goals. Lofink ended the game with seven assists and two goals. On the Shred side, Field led the stats with one assist, four goals, and one block. Ashton had two assists, one goal, and two blocks. Kerr had two assists, one goal, and one block. And Weinberg had two assists and two goals. The Shred fans were as amazing as ever and added so much to the ambiance and intensity of the game. Seattle is thrilled to return to Championship Weekend for the first time since 2016, when they made it to the finals. Just two weeks to go and we will return to Zions Bank Stadium for the 2024 UFA Championship Weekend.
