Photo Cred: Monika Jaine
Ryan Baker
The Madison Radicals have much to take away from their weekend doubleheader down in Texas. The biggest thing is that Madison put its first mark in the win column for the 2025 season. Head Coach Jacob Spiro reigned in his first head coaching win after a stopped affair due to lightning against the Houston Havoc this past Friday night.
“Getting a win always feels great no matter if it’s the first or 10th one, they all still feel great. That’s why I keep doing it. It felt good to be appreciated by the team afterward. The coach in me would say that getting a Gatorade dousing for a victory in May perhaps may not be an appropriate use of that tool, but as a person, I really appreciated the gesture from the team. I thought that was very nice,” said Spiro.
However, the Radicals have a lot to work on. It seemed as if Madison had hesitance early in the games on letting go of their hucks, settled in, but then got too trigger-happy at times. Also, it was the self-inflicted wounds, especially against the Austin Sol, that need to be fixed.
Let’s start at the beginning, though. Friday night brought incredibly tough playing conditions with 20+ mph winds all game that switched direction, a thunderstorm that eventually ended the game, and a grass field that enveloped each drop of rain making it hard for players to get their footing.
Looking at the game at the surface level, Madison won 12-10 after play was stopped with just over two minutes left in the third quarter. The O-line converted just 37% of the time, while they were 9/13 in the red zone. Those numbers simply need to rise, even with the conditions, for Madison to contend late in the season. The bright spot was that they produced five breaks throughout the game, building off of their stellar D-line in 2024.
“Overall, I thought it was a really positive weekend for the team. I thought we did a really good job coming together as a group and winning a game that had a lot of adversity in it. I think it was a really good victory for us,” said Spiro.
Third-year star Anthony Gutowsky earned Pabst Light Player of the Game honors with his four goals, one block, and 149 receiving yards, picking up right where he left off in 2024. Another player that picked up where he left off was Pieran Robert, putting up his first two goals of the season.
The points were long, and muddy, and made things difficult for either team to build momentum. Despite the conditions, Madison came out hot and high-flying. Mitchell McCarthy pinned Houston back with a long pull, and Luke Marks raced down the field to get his hand on a hammer throw in Houston’s endzone. That led to a McCarthy to Kainoa Chun-Moy break, for Chun-Moy’s first-ever goal as a Radical. Chun-Moy had one goal and two blocks in his Madison debut.
“It was a dream come true. Honestly, pretty surreal. It was an honor to wear the jersey and represent a team I have been a fan of for so long. Once, I got subbed in after Luke’s phenomenal block, instincts took over. I just got my dude’s shoulder and Mitchell trusted me enough to score the goal,” said Chun-Moy.
Gabe Vordick, Joshua Wilson, McCarthy, and Gutowsky all got in on the action with their own respective layouts that left the announcers stunned. After a last-second huck from Kai Marcus to Jack Nelson at the end of the first quarter, the game was tied at four.
A two-minute stretch in the second quarter before Houston adjusted their downfield defense to force the Radicals deep is what put the game in the hands of Madison. A Chun-Moy hammer throw to Robert for a break, followed by a Houston drop leading to another break, followed by a Houston turfed throw for another break by Madison put the game at 9-6. Houston never recovered from there.
Moving on to the Austin game the next night, this one ended a lot worse for the Radicals and showed some glaring holes that need to be patched going forward.
The first O-line point for Madison against the Sol ended in a break after Vordick was called out the back on a deep huck that he tried to coral in. The next point, Jake Carrico slipped trying to get to an around throw that led to an easy Austin break that put the Radicals down 3-0 to open the game.
The young Madison squad couldn’t dig themselves out of that hole for the entirety of the game. The double team that the Radicals threw at Houston didn’t have the same success in much better playing conditions against Austin. Additionally, Austin was much more aggressive in terms of attacking the disc and putting pressure on every throw which made it difficult for Madison to adjust to right away.
Spiro’s team was able to put the game within three at the end of the first half after getting a break to close the quarter but were not able to close that margin for the remainder of the game. It was easy around throws that hit the ground, simple drops, and not being able to stop Jackson Potts and Kyle Henke. The two combined for six goals, nine assists, and over 750+ total yards.
The third quarter ended with Madison trailing by five after Austin strung together three straight scores again. The final quarter was mainly back-forth with both teams scoring five apiece. The final score was 22-17 in the Sol’s favor.
The bright spots of this game for the Radicals came from Kai DeLorenzo, Nelson, and Gutowksy. DeLorenzo seems to be getting back to form with his three assists, two goals, and one-block performance. Meanwhile, Nelson walked away with three assists, one goal, one block, and 310 total yards. Finally, Gutowsky added five more goals to his 2025 resume, bringing his total to nine for the doubleheader.
“Nothing is guaranteed. If I want to be an elite member in this league, I’m going to have to do more than just score goals. I’m not going to have a big year, unless I can perform on both sides of the ball. With only eight completions, I don’t think I did that well. If I’m not doing anything to work it up the field, and I just score, that’s not a win for me,” said Gutowsky.
The Radicals may have had tired legs in the second game of the doubleheader, but this is something that they are going to have to get used to this year, given that they have two more of them on their schedule.
“We just have to get back to the basics with a lot of the mechanics. We’ve been trying to put in a lot of different things in the playbook in terms of the offense and defense since we’ve gotten outside. Sometimes, you just need to refocus on the basic effort plays that make a good team a great one,” said Spiro.
They will have the opportunity to turn up the heat at practice, fix execution issues, and iron out the kinks the next two weeks before they host the currently 1-0 Pittsburgh Thunderbirds for their 2025 home opener at Breese Stevens Field on May 17 at 6 p.m. CT.
