June 6, 2025
Jason Christensen
The Salt Lake Shred sits atop the West after an impressive overtime win in Oakland June 6.
After dropping their first game of the season against Atlanta, the Shred has built up a five-game winning streak, with their most recent win against the Spiders coming via a 25-24 overtime victory. The young roster continues to prove they have the pieces to compete for a place in Championship Weekend, and their chemistry continues to build as the team reaches the halfway point of the regular season.
Several crucial plays by the Shred on defense brought the game to overtime after being down by two with a minute left, including a great block.
Will Russnogle led the Shred in scoring with six goals, while McKay and Chad Yorgason combined for thirteen assists. Chad became the third Shred in three weeks to be featured in the UFA’s honor roll, joining Will Selfridge and his brother McKay.
Trading blows
The Shred have never had this close of a game this season, and the pace felt like it early on. Not only was the score tied at the end of the fourth quarter, but it was tied at the half as well. The only team statistic that featured a difference greater than 10% was ironically huck percentage, where the Shred succeeded 79% of the time compared to Oakland’s 58%. This is the first time this season the Shred has completed more hucks than their opponent.
Every other statistic was nearly identical in the game, something which makes sense in the context of a game that went to overtime. But deeper than that, the Spiders found a lot of success offensively by making mid-range throws with speed and confidence. For the vast majority of the game, the Spiders simply refused to go away. Salt Lake would put together a scoring drive with patient, deliberate passing, and then would be promptly answered with a goal going the other way.
While Oakland demonstrated strong synergy across many players on offense, the chemistry between the Yorgason brothers was on full display. McKay threw for 388 yards and had 190 receiving yards, while Chad threw for 466 and had 326 receiving. They led the Shred with plus/minuses of +7 and +8 to go with six and seven assists, connecting with each other on four goals over the course of the game.
Most of the game felt like it was a test to see whose offense would blink first, and that title fell to Salt Lake. Entering the fourth quarter, the Shred was down 17-18. The teams were getting tired, and the Shred started to lag behind, missing scoring opportunities on a break and an offensive possession that went dead after some miscommunication on a huck. Oakland capitalized on these lapses to pull ahead, leading 19-22 with four minutes left.
A grand finale
Finally some drives started to come together for Salt Lake, and the breaks started coming together too. The Yorgasons began double duty on offense and defense to bolster the scoring opportunities, but the Spiders were not letting up on their scoring either. Oakland managed to score with 54 seconds left to go up by two and potentially put the game away.
Turns out that was just enough time for the Shred to tie it up.
Rapid passing led to a gutsy 41-yard huck from Braden Eberhard caught by Will Selfridge to score with 27 seconds left. But the score was still 22-23, and the Shred were about to give Oakland the disc.
Immediately after the pull, Reed Browning got a block on the Spiders’ second throw of the possession, opening the door for the Yorgason brothers to get the disc in Russnogle’s hands for his sixth goal of the game and sending the game to overtime.
Once the Shred reached overtime, the strategy was simple: score first, keep the lead, and own the clock. Salt Lake achieved this with ease. A throwaway from Oakland–who started overtime with possession–led to a break and a minute and a half off the clock. A similar story happened on Oakland’s next possession with a lot of clock getting eaten up to lead to a throwaway. From there, Chad’s massive 62-yard pass to Selfridge put the Shred comfortably in scoring position, and a great pass to Jace Duennebeil gave them a two-point lead with a little over a minute left.
Oakland did manage to score once, but the Shred’s overtime game plan proved triumphant as the clock ran out during their game of catch.
Down goes the division leaders.
On to the next
The Shred has officially made it into the back half of the regular season, with its sights set on a spot in Championship Weekend. The road features intimidating matchups from some of the best teams in the UFA, and the first obstacle in their way to the postseason is a rematch at home against the Oregon Steel June 13. The Steel was part of Salt Lake’s back-to-back weekend in the Pacific Northwest May 31, ending with a Shred victory 21-17. Time will tell if Salt Lake can come out on top again.
