Photo by Matt Messina
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
The ship has been righted. On May 24, the Minnesota Wind Chill successfully entered Breese Stevens Field to beat the Madison Radicals in their home opener of 2024, 21-17.
“It’s always tough to play here. I’m really happy with the performance, and the defensive energy was fantastic. We had people playing in new positions today. People really stepped up and played great. It’s a really awesome win to get back on track,” said Feldman.
After dropping their own home opener just a week ago against the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, the Wind Chill walked into one of the toughest environments in the UFA, and spoiled their third home opener of the season. Add this one to the docket. Now sitting at 3-1, and atop the Central Division, all three of their wins have happened in their opponents’ home openers.
“I think we got a lot of talent. We got a lot of potential to be competitive with any team we play. As we saw against Pittsburgh, we can also lose to any team that we play. I think we have a really good chance to compete for a championship this year. We’re really close, just need to polish some things up,” said Matthew Rehder.
It was a shaky set of events for both teams with Mother Nature being a bit troublesome. Storms were in the forecast all day, and there were whispers that the start of the game was going to be delayed. While the game started on time, with just a couple minutes left in the first half, a lightning delay that lasted about 90 minutes went underway. The game was pretty back and forth up until the delay. Heading into the break, Minnesota was up 8-7, but all that changed after coming back to the field.
Another shaky set of events for Minnesota, was their travel to get to the ultimate frisbee capital of the world. Two of their top playmakers in Rehder and Quinn Snider showed their commitment to the team by pushing through their travel problems to get to the game. Snider flew redeye the night before into Chicago and took a bus to get up to the field, meanwhile Rehder’s flight from St. Louis got deplaned, due to the storms, and when he finally got into Chicago, took a rental car up to Madison through the pouring rain.
“Energy is just the most important thing coming into this. I knew that I was going to show up late, and I didn’t want to get in the way of anything that these dudes we’re already doing. Getting out there and running hard, just simplifying my game as much as I possibly could,” said Rehder.
That energy was seen after the resume of play. Continually, Bryan Vohnoutka, Dylan DeClerck, and Snider were making play after play. Vohnoutka walked out with four assists, three goals, and almost 500 total yards, including a last second sky in the end-zone over multiple people to end the first quarter. DeClerck, who has historically played really well in Madison, came up with two huge blocks later in the game, along with four goals.
“We lost a lot when I first got on the team, probably losing the first ten games I played in Madison. I think I’m fueled, and some of the older guys are fueled by that. We know how much it sucks to lose here. We know how much the crowd gets up. As much as we are trying to play the villain, we’re also trying to not let the crowd back into the game,” said DeClerck.
The energy from the Radicals fans seemed to be touch and go. Anytime that the Radicals seemed to get an inch, and seemed to be getting back into the game, Snider would make a huge grab and deflate the crowd.
“We tried to keep it simple on offense. We knew coming in Madison likes to do a lot of switch defense. Anytime you try to make a deep cut, they like to have someone sitting back and helping with that. Ultimately, I saw myself in a position to be one-on-one and the guys threw up some trust throws at times for me,” said Snider.
Not only was Snider a help to the team, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are accredited with giving the Wind Chill an energy boost during the lightning delay. At the time, the T-Wolves were up big in a playoff game that had the attention of the Wind Chill.
“We definitely talked about coming out hot. I think the boys were watching the T-Wolves game, and got pretty excited when they were up and crushing it. Partially, I think it was Colin Berry and the coaches getting us ready to come out hot, and partially the momentum of watching the T-Wolves in the first half,” said DeClerck.
Coming out of their own first half, Minnesota dropped the first two points, which had the game tied at ten apiece. Then, a five-point run was the difference in the game. Heading out of the third quarter, the Wind Chill were up 15-11. There was a slight scare early in the fourth, when the Radicals went a three-point run of their own, but it was too little and too late for them.
“It was huge to have the sideline presence that we did tonight. That was a big difference from last week. We really acknowledged that and wanted to work on that. We were able to stifle them and slow their momentum, which dragged out the clock. That really worked to our favor towards the end of the game,” said Snider.
Minnesota threw a zone defense at the Radicals late in the game, which forced Madison to move the disc in small increments that wasted a ton of time. Then, the in the last point of the game, there were high emotions with Minnesota scoring at the buzzer, giving them a four-point win, instead of a three-point win.
“In that situation, we want to score. It’s no disrespect. It’s a tight game, and this is a good team. We’re going take every advantage that we can, knowing that they might be here, fighting with us at the end of the season,” said Feldman.
The score was motivated by the head-to-head tiebreaker that ends with point differential between the teams played if Minnesota were to split the two matchups against the Radicals this season. However, for now, Minnesota sits at 3-1 after a huge win, heading into a bye week. Following that, will be their lone game against the Indianapolis AlleyCats, which will mean a ton come the end of the season standings.
