By: Alex “Shaggy” Shragis
Photo By: Don Mennig
The Philadelphia Phoenix played one of their best games of 2026, but fell short to the defending champion Boston Glory 17-14. Philly once again started slowly, falling behind 7-3 at the start of the second quarter, but was able to claw their way back to a 10-8 halftime deficit and found themselves within one, in possession of the disc and just over 7 minutes left to play. However, a too-short huck ended the break opportunity to tie it, then an errant pass and drop let Boston get a break that stretched them to lead by three.
The slow Phoenix starts, a problem all season, have the Hotbirds still at a place where they have not led at any point in play. This game was no different, as Boston took a 2-0 lead out of the gate, capitalizing on a blocked huck very early in the game. Despite continuing to miss open receivers and drop easy passes, the Phoenix offense had one of its better outings this season, and substantially improved their previous 28-11 showing in Boston on May 24. Philly had a season low 15 turnovers, and had a relatively high — for Philadelphia — huck completion rate (78%), hold rate (58%), offensive line conversion rate (50%) and red zone conversion percentage (81%). The offense also had another week to gel around Ezra Beidler-Shenk. The rookie led all players with 19 points played, and led the Phoenix with 58 completions, doubling Chase Rawlins’s second most completions at 27.
Philadelphia’s offense stuck to the form they have played during home games so far this season. They performed just well enough to look respectable for stretches, yet had brutal miscues and ended up ceding momentum to the opponents. The defense also applied pressure at key moments of the game, the combination of Sam Davies and Drew Loughnane did a good job limiting reigning MVP Tobe Decraene in the second and third quarters, where he had just one assist, one goal, and two turnovers. The problem was the rest of the game, where Decraene had 5 assists and no turnovers, giving Glory an insurmountable lead.
Paul Owens’s return certainly helped the Hotbirds, just his presence seemed to get the defense pointing in a more productive direction. Despite not having a block, he forced two turns and is a veteran presence with the expertise to impart all defense caliber strategy on a still fairly green team. Even with Owens in the lineup, Philadelphia was still unable to keep Boston’s primary disc movers away from the action. Much like Hoffenkamp during the Commonwealth Cup, Thomas Edmonds had 76 completions, no turnovers, and 543 total yards. While Edmonds is typically more of a downfield presence, the Phoenix have to figure out how to limit their opponents best throwers or they are going to continue to get walked down the field.
Philly faces a very different test this weekend, as they take on the fifth place Montreal Royal. Royal play a radically different style of offense to Glory, looking to up the pace, up the possessions and let the disc fly — Montreal has nearly as many huck completions per game as huck turnovers per game. Royal is middle of the pack in terms of turnovers per game with 18, but towards the bottom of the league in completion percentage, and sixth to last in total completions per game. They will look to move the disc quickly, and eat up yardage in as few throws as possible.
Montreal has its own bona fide MVP candidate in Malik Auger-Semmar. The seventh year Royal leads the league with 56 scores for the season, and is plus 43 in +/-, trailing only reigning MVP Tobe Decraene. Unlike Decraene however, Auger-Semmar has not been willing to play as seamlessly in the backfield, and is looking for chunks of yardage rather than the patient whittling away displayed by Decraene this past weekend, something that fits in well with Montreal’s approach to the game. Even with so many goals and assists, Auger-Semmar is outside the top 20 in total completions, despite playing the most games in the league. The French Canadian phenom is also completing just 92% of his passes, the most since his rookie season, suggesting perhaps too high a risk profile. Philadelphia can attack that by forcing him under and trying to limit his opportunities on long range throws. If the Phoenix can successfully force Auger-Semmar into short yardage situations, they will have a better chance of slowing down the Montreal attack overall.
Unlike the previous Phoenix home games, this is the first contest at Neumann University where the visiting team will not be playing on the second day of a back to back. Montreal is only visiting one city on this road trip: Aston, Pennsylvania. The Hotbirds have been able to lean on the opposition, relying on tired legs to give way and let them back into the game. They fell behind big against Pittsburgh and Boston, but were able to drag themselves to even by capitalizing on the wear and tear of the doubleheader weekend the Thunderbirds and Glory were going through, as well as their consequently shorter rosters. Philly will not have that luxury against Montreal, and the Phoenix need to ensure they do not fall behind quickly, lest they risk the game getting completely out of hand.
To achieve this aim, the Hotbird offense has to play their cleanest game of the year, which may be difficult with Scott Heyman and Dmitry Suvorov unable to play this weekend. In brighter news for the Phoenix, this weekend may mark Max Tran’s return to the roster after an exciting rookie year. The second year Phoenix player had six goals, six blocks and five assists in just eight games for the 2025 Hotbirds. Catch the action this Saturday June 13, at 6 p.m. at Neumann University, tickets available at the Hotbird Web Shop: phoenixulti.com.
