Perfection in 2018 is off the table for the Toronto Rush, as the Breeze beat them 25-24 in overtime in D.C. The Rush lost a strange game, which saw three key offensive players no longer playing with the offence by the time the day was done. Andrew Carroll didn’t make the trip, Ben Oort injured his thumb, and Cam Harris switched to the D-Line during the second quarter.
Even though 2018 marks the sixth straight year of Toronto’s brash dominance over its East Division foes, it also denotes a slightly fresh, original era for the Rush. The Rush are better than their divisional rivals, just as they always have been. But the last undefeated team in the AUDL is conquering its opponents in ways new and old, tried and novel.
“Things are different, but things are the same,” said defensive captain Bomber Powell.
Since the birth of the first Canadian expansion team in 2013, U.S. and Canadian teams have battled for supremacy on the AUDL field. The northern neighbors dominated the first few years of the international rivalry, but the U.S.-based teams have closed the gap, coming up just one game short in last year’s Cross Border Challenge.
The Raleigh Flyers beat the Madison Radicals into an existential crisis nearly two weeks ago. Madison is one of the flagship franchises of the AUDL, and they’ve never before lost a game in such humiliating fashion or by such a wide margin.