Photo by Norman Timonera
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
The 4th of July frisbee brought us an absolutely electric game between the Minnesota Wind Chill and Chicago Union. While the score of 25-15 was in the Union’s favor, the game brought highlight play after highlight play.
The fans and sun were out, with the heat blasting down onto the field during the special holiday game. Minnesota opened up on offense that ended with a Chicago break score after William Wettengel had a major layout block in the endzone.
That set the tone for the rest of the game. Words were being exchanged, bodies were flying around, and the energy was off the charts. However, it seemed that the heat and Chicago’s energy drained the life out of the Wind Chill after they let up five breaks in the first quarter. James Pollard gave Minnesota a little bit of momentum after reaching up and grabbing one of his patented buzzer-beater skies.
Minnesota is a team that does phenomenal on the road, winning their last ten road games dating back to last season. This one was different. They struggled immensely moving the disc from both their offensive unit and their defensive unit. Both teams struggled to truly get things going in a smooth fashion. Long points continued, but Chicago continued to grind them out over the reigning champs.
“I think we struggled the most with not having enough options close to the disc. Chicago was pushing us out and away. It put us in some tough spots, and then they aggressively pursued the unders because we were already deep from a cutter perspective,” said Bryan Vohnoutka.
Photo by Roman Pham
Another thing Minnesota struggled with was stopping Daan De Marrée. At the end of the first half, Marrée reached up over two Minnesota defenders to snatch a buzzer-beater to extend Chicago’s lead to five. That was just a snippet of his seven goals, 550+ yards, two blocks, and two assists.
“I think almost everyone is frustrated with that performance. We plan to see them again in August for the divisional championship, but we obviously need to change some things before then if we expect to have a different result,” said Vohnoutka.
Coming out of halftime, Minnesota did have a spark of energy after an immediate hold followed by a break score to bring the deficit to just three. The Wind Chill kept receiving second chances for dirty holds and breaks, but they weren’t able to build any consistency.
After bringing it within three, Minnesota got broken twice, which ramped Chicago’s lead up to six. With just one quarter remaining to play, the Wind Chill were down 12-19. The 27 turnovers, going 3/16 on break chances, and holding at just a 44% hold rate were too much to overcome against the undefeated Union squad.
Photo by Norman Timonera
“Chicago’s a really good opponent. We need to have an optimal performance to compete with them, and we didn’t get that on Friday. We feel we are still learning things about ourselves. Now it’s really about focusing and shifting our mentality toward Madison this weekend, trying to lock up a home playoff game,” said head coach Ben Feldman.
The energy was simply gone from Minnesota. After the scores, there were no celebrations or yelling. Meanwhile, Chicago still had guys laying out and applying pressure until that clock hit zero.
In terms of upside, Thomas Shope had an incredible defensive game, Tristan Van de Moortele played really well switching over to the O-line with his 563 total-yard game, and Dylan DeClerck moved into the top ten of career blocks in the entire league with his two in the holiday game.
Minnesota was able to salvage the weekend after making quick work of Detroit a day later, after the frustrating loss to Chicago. The Wind Chill came out with a vengeance by blasting the Mechanix 8-2 in the first quarter. That led to a final score of 25-14.
We saw all those marks from the Chicago game improve. Granted, the Wind Chill still had 23 turnovers, but their hold percentage increased to 75%. It’s always tough to gauge a game against Detroit considering their history, but it’s still a mark in the win column.
“I think we’ve always been in the mindset that we need to be our best selves at the end of the season. That journey is going to have its ups and downs. We haven’t played to the level we feel we can play,” said Feldman.
Photo by Rich Moll
We saw the usual from the Wind Chill’s stat leaders in this one. Top goal scorers Paul Krenik and Dylan DeClerck led the game in goals with four and three, respectively. Conversely, Max Hanscom continued his block barrage in his rookie campaign, adding four of those to his resume. Additionally, Will Brandt and Vohnoutka both put up 400+ total-yard campaigns.
Looking at the landscape for the rest of the season, Minnesota lost their chance at the one seed after the Union went 2-0 this weekend. With that in mind, the second seed is still up for grabs between them and the Madison Radicals. With a win next weekend over the Radicals,
Minnesota will clinch that home playoff game, but with a loss, it could put that in jeopardy.
In recent history, Minnesota has had Madison’s number, and the Wind Chill will be looking for blood and wanting to get the weekend’s taste out of their mouths.
