By: Alex “Shaggy” Shragis
Photo By: Shawn Lanzillo
An enormous weekend for the Philadelphia Phoenix, who simultaneously picked up their first win of the season in a thrilling 22-21 toppling of Montreal Royal, pulled themselves out of last place in the East, and kept their playoff hopes alive with losses from New York and DC to Boston. Philly jumped out to a big lead early, scoring a break on the third point of the game for their first lead in 2026, and managed to keep the lead despite being outscored 8-3 in the fourth quarter.
The Phoenix played nearly perfect frisbee in the first half, giving up zero breaks, just one turnover on offense, and built a 14-8 lead, scoring three times in a row to end the first quarter, then twice again to start the second. Max Tran had a performance worthy of Man of the Match, scoring three of his five goals — including his Sports Center Top 10 layout grab — and throwing zero turnovers. Just as important was the ruthless efficiency from Philly’s top disc touchers, who went 52/53 on completions in the first half. Chase Rawlins (10/10), Ethan Sarles (9/10), Ezra Biedler-Shenk (24/24) and Thomas Nye (9/9) having just one turnover between the four of them allowed Philly to operate with impunity, and opened up the field for everyone involved.
With the offense firing on all cylinders, the defense pinned its ears back. Drew Loghnane, Jimmy Bray and Sam Davies each had two blocks, joining Ethan Holmgren, Jack Wisner and Mike Campanella as the only players with multi-block games for the Phoenix this season. With the downfield defenders sufficiently clamped, Hotbird handler defenders had plenty of time to build pressure and force Montreal into difficult reset situations. Of Montreal’s 13 first half turnovers, six were on hucks and five were in the reset space, with Royal players dropping, overthrowing or underthrowing tightly covered dumps. Credit to players like Chris Zaleski and Matt Hanna, who forced these tough moments. The Phoenix also saw an uptick in BRK%, converting on 6/11 first half opportunities. Players like Tyler Mackey did an excellent job quarterbacking the defense, and a special shoutout to Ian Dietrich, who had four turnovers with 10 completions in his first four games, going 8/8, without an incompletion, in his last two!
Philly’s good first half continued into the third quarter, and while the offense was not perfect, the defense kept pace, splitting the period with five goals a piece. It was in the fourth where things fell apart, as Montreal outscored Philadelphia 8-3. The end got particularly hairy, with three straight scores and a block, giving Montreal the disc on the goal line with five seconds remaining and down by one. An incredible mark by Chase Rawlins and good poach awareness by Drew Loughnane allowed the Phoenix to escape with a turfed throw from Montreal, but it was certainly a more exciting ending than the seven point lead would have indicated at the half. A big reason for the goal chickens coming home to roost was a return to the mean for Philly’s throwing core. Beidler-Shenk had zero turnovers in the first half and five in the second, Thomas Nye continued to be perfect and Rawlins and Sarles each had one apiece. While this would end up being Biedler-Shenk’s worst throwing performance of his three game career — the University of Pittsburgh freshman had three turnovers in his first two games and five in this one — his addition to the Phoenix offense has been nothing short of revitalizing. The Masterman High School graduate leads the league in completions per game with 56.
The Hotbirds face a much tougher test this weekend, as they go on the road for the rematch against Montreal on Friday, then head to Boston for their third game against the defending champs on Saturday. While the travel and fatigue are certainly both factors, the Phoenix have had dramatic struggles on the road all season. While Philly has been outscored by just two-and-a-half points at home, they have lost both road games by 17 points, including one against Boston. Last year, on this same road trip, the Phoenix lost both games by 10.
The first step will be maintaining their deep game supremacy against Montreal. Montreal converted just 1/8 of hucks in the first half, before a lights out performance in the second to end at 7/15, a 45% number below their season huck conversion average of 55%. The Phoenix were 12/17 on hucks, at 71%, topping the 63% rate they have converted throughout the season, and well above Montreal’s opponent huck percentage of 60%. Philly continuing to win the deep game will go a long way towards picking up a second win.
They also need to maintain consistent levels of play. Against Pittsburgh, they fell behind big and had to come back to take it to overtime. Against Montreal, they got a large lead and nearly relinquished it in the fourth quarter. Inconsistent play is typical of young teams. Because of the standard set by the Hotbirds over the last few seasons, people overlook just how young this team really is, particularly on offense, where they are led in completions per game by a 19-year-old, 24-year-old and 25-year-old — I really cannot stress how remarkable it is that the Philadelphia Phoenix have had a 19-year-old lead the league in completions per game in both 2025 and 2026, being Sam Grossberg and Ezra Biedler-Shenk respectively.
While Montreal will be difficult to beat twice, Boston is an entirely different animal. Glory are coming off their best weekend of the season, avenging their loss to New York with an overtime win before walloping the Breeze 27-18 in DC. Boston has undergone a bit of a slump after their first Montreal game, and certainly seems to have broken out of it with the pair of wins. Their offense conversion rates and hold percentages have all seen dramatic upticks, and the huck completion rate has ballooned, going from 55% and 57% in Week 7 to 88% and 83% in Week 8, on more attempts. The Phoenix need to force Boston to move the disc aggressively to the downfield cutters, particularly because they have done such a bad job against Glory handler corps in their first two meetings. Sadok and Dinger were 60/60 in the first matchup, while Thomas Edmunds was 76/76 in the second. If Philly wants to find success against the Glory in round three, they either need to limit Boston’s backfield touches or find a way to pressure the resets and force the same sort of short yardage turnovers they got in the Royal game.
With DC losing to Boston last weekend, the Philadelphia Phoenix are somehow very alive for the 2026 playoffs. It would require them to either win out, or lose just one game against New York or Boston, but the fact that the Hotbirds still control their own destiny after starting the season 0-5 is remarkable. DC is 6-3, with two games against Philly and an away game against Atlanta remaining on the season. If the Phoenix win out, they are in the playoffs, and if they drop a game to a team other than DC, they just need the Breeze to lose a very difficult game to the Atlanta Hustle, one which the Hustle will likely need to make the playoffs.
Tune into WatchUFA.tv for this weekend's action, and then catch the Hotbirds back home on July 1 and July 3, tickets available on the Hotbird Web Shop: phoenixulti.com.
