Photo by Meghan White
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
The first step to back-to-back titles for the Minnesota Wind Chill has been completed after an easy 22-16 win this past Saturday night against the Madison Radicals.
Minnesota has made their way past the first round of the playoffs and earned themselves a date with the Chicago Union in two weeks. It was a combination of Madison shooting themselves in the foot with Minnesota showing that they have one of the most conditioned teams in the league that resulted in the six-point win.
Minnesota began the game on a three-point run and never looked back. A big sky by Kyle Suelflow from Dylan DeClerck on the second point earned the Wind Chill their first break. That was followed up by a Noah Hanson lay-out block to set up a Bryan Vohnoutka to Will Brandt score.
Photo by Rich Moll
An end-of-quarter hail mary by Madison that was caught off the tip brought Minnesota’s lead down to two. That didn’t last long. A giant sky by James Pollard, coming from a prayer thrown up by Blake Krapfl, surged the crowd into a frenzy to open up the second quarter.
“We played solid. We had a few slip-ups here and there, some short field turns, and some end-of-quarter issues. But the pressure was good, and the offense is improving, which is great. We have two weeks now. We wanted another shot at Chicago, and now we get it,” said head coach Ben Feldman.
Minnesota continued to expand their lead. Greg Cousins’ fourth goal of the game came from Matt Rehder halfway through the second quarter to put them up 11-5. Despite the lead, things got a bit scary for Minnesota to close out the half.
Photo by Rich Moll
“We just had to focus back up and play our game. We had a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes, and we cleaned it up. We start playing our game again. We start playing good frisbee. It feels great. It's where we want to be. We got a big game coming up, and we're just trying to go play our game, play to our standard, and we can play a good game against any team,” said Cousins.
A dropped pull, a drop in the end zone, and another buzzer-beating goal from Madison cut the Wind Chill’s lead to just two heading into halftime. Coming out of the half, there was no certain outcome. After the third quarter, that outcome became incredibly apparent. That is because Minnesota put up a 6-1 third quarter that included a layout Callahan for Justin Burnett.
“That Callahan is truly a team Callahan. Feldman talked right before that point about getting down there and winning the pull. We got a fantastic pull from Cam Lacy; every option was covered, so they had to try to go to that outlet. I knew that was going to come. I saw he was looking at it, and I knew I had that inside angle. I took that and made the play,” said Burnett.
Photo by Meghan White
Having that 18-11 lead with just one quarter remaining made things quite easy the rest of the way. Feldman opted for a zone defense look early in the fourth to force Madison to kill time off the clock, and that is exactly what happened. The next thing fans knew, they were counting down from ten, about to watch their team advance to the next round.
“We didn't do great at Sea Foam last year. We dropped one this year, which is a bummer, but we want to get wins for the home fans. Cleaning up that record a little bit this year was good, and we’re excited to do this all again next year. There was awesome progress from the attendance perspective. I’m excited to keep building on that, and hopefully bring back another title here for the fans in the next month,” said Feldman.
Minnesota’s offense did look better in this one. Against one of the better defenses in the league, they were able to post a 75% hold rate along with punching in all but one of their 16 red zone opportunities. While there was improvement, this is still a team that needs to take it up a notch to knock off the undefeated Union in two weeks.
Photo by Trent Erickson
“There were some bad miscues and drops in our own red zone. They're going to score those. The end-of-quarter blunder wasn't great. Things happen. The offense regrouped, and both teams got tired in the second half. We just made some pretty good decisions with the disc, had open guys and stayed disciplined,” said Feldman.
On the defensive side, Minnesota was able to keep UFA goals leader, Anthony Gutowsky, out of the end zone. That’s something that hasn’t happened in his career, and it was at hands of, arguably, the best defense in the league. Completely blanking the other team’s top producer is always a recipe for success.
As far as individual play, it was your usual suspects doing the damage. Vohnoutka had four assists, one goal, and over 380 total yards. Rehder, Gordon Larson, and Will Brandt all had three assists apiece. Brandt also tacked on two goals and over 400 yards of total offense. DeClerck and Burnett both had two blocks, leading the defensive charge. Finally, Cousins caught one more goal, giving him five on the game, while also adding a block and an assist.
Photo by Rich Moll
“I was just trying to find space and trying to read the disc. If the defense leaves me alone, I'm going to try and find a spot. If our throwers can get it to me, it makes the game pretty easy,” said Cousins.
The stage is set. One down, three to go. Minnesota will travel to Chicago for a game on August 9 against the Union. The Wind Chill will be underdogs in the third matchup between the two this season and will be looking for revenge after lackluster performances in the first two games.
“In the second matchup, we had quite a few people who were coming back from a long tournament. A little tired and a little sick, and I just feel like this game is going to be the best game that we've had yet. It's going to be worthy of being the Central Division championship playoff game, and I like our chances,” said Burnett.
