By Noam Gumerman

The Carolina Flyers took care of business against the Houston Havoc at home Friday night, doubling them for a 28-14 win. After a four-game losing streak to start the season, the Flyers have won their next four games in a row, and are poised to make a push for the playoffs down the stretch this season.

The Flyers set the tone early with their defense, pinning Houston deep in their own end zone forcing them to work all the way up the field to do, which they could not on the first two points of the game as the Flyers broke twice early. But Houston largely stabilized throughout the end of the first quarter and early second, and were still in striking distance of the Flyers late in the first half. With under five minutes to go, the Flyers were up 12-7. And at halftime, they extended that lead to 16-7, and Havoc never even sniffed a five-point deficit for the rest of the evening. 

The Flyers break blitz was a continued positive point of emphasis and improvement for this team from their four games lost at the beginning of the year. They maintained that defensive pressure throughout the game, continuing their trend of generating more, and more blocks throughout this win streak with a season high 19 on the day.

The Flyers got standout performances from Grayson Sanner (4G, 4A) Suraj Madiraju (1G, 4A) and Dylan Hawkins (6G, 1A) on their way to this dominant performance. This win keeps them just one game down in the loss column on San Diego and Atlanta for the last two South Division playoff spots, with a huge game against Atlanta coming up in just a couple weeks.

But up next may be the Flyers biggest challenge of this season so far, the undefeated Austin Sol come to town this Saturday, June 28, at 7 p.m. EDT in Durham. The Flyers will need to hand Austin their first loss of the season to stay hot on the heels of their other division rivals for a playoff spot. Don’t miss it.