April 28, 2025
By Adam Ruffner

Oakland makes statement with win over New York

The Spiders have been a young and exciting team on the rise the past two seasons, with numerous West Division thrillers and an excess of high octane highlights. Now with a new injection of star talent headlined by Leo Gordon and Adam Rees and a convincing five-goal home opener win against the Empire, Oakland might be ready for title contention in 2025.

The first thing to note about this year’s edition of the Spiders is their blazing team speed and high tempo offense. Gordon is a roadrunner who loves to eat up chunks of yards at a time with a flurry of give-and-go actions, and his frenetic pace was perfectly complemented by the endless route running of third year standout Walker Frankenberg. Oakland was able to outrun New York coverage throughout their matchup and stay a step ahead of defenders, and Gordon’s infinite release angles and gutsy decisions provided the killing blow on numerous red zone scores for the Spiders. Gordon finished his pro debut with team highs in assists (5) and completions (34) while only committing a single turnover, and Frankenberg led all players last Thursday night in scores* (9) and total yards (503), operating equally as a distributor and finisher.

Defensively, the Spiders accomplished a lot through the basic tenets of pressuring underneath passes, and challenging every reset throw. Defensive captain and fourth year Spider Robin Vickers Batzdorf had a career night against the Empire, disrupting backfield passes and igniting some electric Spiders break scores in transition. Oakland still has little in the way of developed defensive schemes, but their athleticism provides a lot of pressure in single coverage.  

There are still areas of improvement to address, like the team’s penchant for self inflicted mistakes and inefficiencies near the goal line. But Oakland looks very legitimate out of the gates.

* Scores = assists plus goals

Philly stuns DC, gets first win against Breeze since 2017

“It’s been a long time coming.”

Sean Mott’s first words following Philadelphia’s historic win in DC put it best. The Phoenix have been heart wrenchingly close to closing out wins against the Breeze numerous times in recent years, only to have late game errors and fortuitous DC plays seal their demise time and again. But on Saturday, the Phoenix finally held on for the one-goal win, asserting themselves as yet another possible contender in a fitfully competitive East Division landscape.

In a game that featured ill tempered wind and 54 combined turnovers from both teams, there was no one ingredient that led to Philadelphia’s victory, but rather a total team effort. Scott Heyman was the player of the match on offense, slicing multiple assists for clutch scores inside the red zone, and finishing with the second most receiving yards of any player in the game; the combination of top end speed as a receiver, throwing power, and edge as a playmaker could make Heyman the next big star in the division, if not the league as a whole. Veteran defenders Mike Campanella and Nate Little both came up with big blocks in the second half to deny DC scoring opportunities, and Brandon Pastor operated as the tip of the spear for Philly’s red zone attack, and finished with a game-high five goals.

The big question now becomes: What’s next for Philly? 

The Phoenix play host to the revamped Toronto Rush this coming Sunday in a suddenly pivotal early season matchup between two playoff hopefuls. 

Atlanta has all the answers in home opener win

Saturday’s “Game Of The Week” definitely lived up to its billing as both the Atlanta Hustle and Salt Lake Shred came out guns a-blazing, each squad matching the other in both energy and scheming. The game featured 44 total scores and just 18 total turnovers between two teams who are deadset on reaching the league semifinals at Championship Weekend in August. 

But after the dust settled, it was the home team Hustle who stood tallest thanks to their pristine offensive play and situational execution. Atlanta was 14-for-14 on red zone chances for the night, with five different Hustle throwers completing at least 32 passes for the game and the team finishing with an offensive success rate of 73 percent. No team has more balance on offense than the Hustle, and they look poised to lead the UFA for a second straight season as the most efficient O-line.

Austin Taylor, Brett Hulsmeyer, and Christian Olsen operate as the main pillars for the offensive system, and their versatility and reliability create the conditions for the other pieces in the lineup to flourish. Third year thrower Adam Miller played more points on offense on Saturday night than he had throughout his first two seasons with the team, and excelled as the creative lefty counterbalance to Taylor and Olsen’s steadfast precision. Add in the continued improvement of Hayden Austin-Knab, whose all around game is starting to approach that of Hulsmeyer, and this Hustle offense is built for all comers. 

Loose thoughts

• Oakland wasn’t the only West Division team to stress test a good defense with their attack speed. The Shred sustained multiple starting line losses to their offense over the offseason, and still converted 18-of-25 (72 percent) of their O-line possessions into scores against an elite Hustle coverage unit. Team vets Jacob Miller, McKay Yorgason, and Jordan Kerr are responsible for a large share of the workload, but new defensive transfers Chad Yorgason and Matt Russnogle add pop and hardnosed intensity, as well as giving the Shred more defenders in transition following mistakes. Add in another primetime performance from 21-year-old Will Selfridge—eight scores and nearly 500 total yards—and Salt Lake looks ready to replicate another 10-win regular season with their firepower. 

  • Is there a more entertaining player right now than Selfridge when he catches a rhythm? The fourth-year prospect has always shown a playmaking prowess well beyond his years, and he now has back-to-back Week 1 stat lines against championship level competition to bulk up his pro resume; since day one, Selfridge has had an eye-popping repertoire of throws, hesi move sets, and swagger. But with just one season with more than four starts, the primary question with Selfridge is whether he can consistently stay in the lineup. 

• The new addition veterans to the Hustle lineup all filled their roles with efficiency. Sean Connole uncorked an early and precisely calibrated huck bomb to Hulsmeyer early in the game, and added a nice third throwing option alongside Taylor and Austin-Knab in the backfield. Alec Wilson Holliday had two emphatic goals and a momentum-killing block in transition that denied a critical Salt Lake break attempt. And Cameron Brock added another four goal tally to his all-time leading total, including and fittingly the final score of the game on Saturday night. The Hustle have built one of the most impressive franchise infrastructures in the association, so it’s not surprising to see the trio of savvy stars succeeding in their team debuts. 

• With Alex Atkins shifting over to defense and marshalling the counterattack, Colorado has seemingly created more space for Quinn Finer and Noah Coolman to dominate in open space on offense. The twin jets combined for 74 completions and over 900 yards of total offense in the Summit home opener win, rocketing throws and creating havoc in one-on-one matchups from the opening point. Finer has finished with at least three assists in six straight starts dating back to the beginning of 2024, and his ability to create separation from a standstill is second-to-none in the UFA. He's become a distributor and finisher from the half field line, and everything is coming to him at his own speed; Finer is at the point in his career where he dictates in virtually every matchup. The Summit have now started each of their four seasons of play with a definitive win. 

• Talk about uncharacteristic: including last season’s semifinals loss, and their Week 1 stumble against the Phoenix, DC now has 67 turnovers in their last two outings. To put that into context: You could take their total turnovers from the six games prior and the sum would still not exceed their last two games. The Breeze offense, when in rhythm, is still one of the most skilled in the league. But wind and knowledgeable defenses have revealed certain limitations, particularly in the deep game, in this DC offense scheme.