By Avery Martin
On Friday night, Boston Glory went down to New York with the goal of avenging their lone loss of the season, which came at home to the Empire the previous week with a score of 21-17. There were a couple of issues with this plan, though. Glory would be without Jeff Babbitt, Ben Sadok, Orion Cable, Gus Haflin, Turner Allen, and more. In their stead, Glory saw veteran Gabe Colton make his season debut, and two ‘06 babies made their UFA debuts in Cam Levine and Jack Conroy.
Turned out Boston’s youth and depth were more than up for the challenge of playing in New York. After Cam Levine’s heroic catch at the buzzer to force overtime, Glory’s defense ratcheted up the intensity and claimed a 17-15 win in New York to reclaim first place in the East Division.
Glory’s time in first could have been short-lived, though, as they had a date with the Breeze in the Nation’s Capital the next night.
Road doubleheaders are a tall task for any team in the UFA in the best of times. This weekend was not the best of times. First, Glory found out that they would be without Gabe Colton and Albert Yuan in DC due to injuries that occurred in New York. Next, there were travel complications. While they were able to eventually get a replacement, they weren’t able to be at Carlini field until 7:15. The game started at 7:30. With no time to warm up, the team was going to be put to the test. Fortunately, they received reinforcements in the form of Gus Haflin, Orion Cable, and Chris Parinella.
Any anxiety Glory fans would have entering the game quickly vanished, as Boston jumped to a 3-1 lead early en route to a 27-8 win. Tobe Decraene added to a laundry list of reasons he should be MVP, as Thomas Edmonds and Rowan McDonnell returned to DC for the first time in a Glory Uniform.
Tobe Decraene lit the Ultimate Frisbee world on fire this weekend with two of his best performances of the season in two of the most important games of the season. A shorthanded Boston squad fought through all kinds of obstacles on its way to a statement win against the Breeze.
When the game did get underway, the Breeze capitalized on having the first possession and jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Then it was Glory’s turn. Orion Cable, who didn’t play against New York used his fresh legs to get open and catch a short pass in the front of the end zone, capitalizing on a red-zone opportunity to tie the game 1-1.
Last game against the Empire, Glory struggled in the red area, only converting on 10/15 of those opportunities. Against DC, they had no problems at all converting on 22/24 red-zone opportunities. Making sure to convert with this consistency will be a big emphasis for Glory as the playoffs come into view.
Glory took the lead when Zach Singer found Rowan McDonnell in the back of the end zone to give Glory the 2-1 lead. McDonnell is an ultimate frisbee legend in DC and won league MVP with the Breeze in 2018. Tonight, he played spoiler to his old franchise, giving Boston a lead they would never relinquish.
Tobe Decraene extended the lead to 3-1, with his first assist of the night going to Peter Beorth. The Breeze wouldn’t go away without a fight, however, as they know what it takes to mount a comeback. DC has trailed in all six of their wins. DC was able to rally to make it a close 5-4 game after the first quarter.
Boston would not let a persistent Breeze team make this their seventh comeback win of the season, as they outscored DC 8-3 in the second quarter. Glory had a 13-7 lead going into the half, and DC had no answers for Tobe Decraene. The MVP candidate had 2 assists, 3 goals, and a block in just the first half. Glory used Tobe’s stellar first-half play to build a 13-7 lead and take it into halftime.
Coming back from the half, Glory built on their momentum when a block by Jason Tapper led to Glory converting on the break opportunity to take a 14-8 lead. The reigning MVP would continue his dominance, scoring or assisting on four goals in the third quarter. His performance gave Boston a 20-11 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Boston would have no trouble putting the breeze away in the fourth quarter, outscoring them 7-5 to come away with a dominant 27-18 win.
Tobe Decraene ended the game with 7 goals, 5 assists, and a block. This was a signature performance by Tobe Decraene that makes him the front-runner for the MVP award this season.
This weekend, while playing the best two teams in the East Division (and entire league), Tobe Decraene combined for 11 assists and 9 goals. He helped lead a short-handed Boston team to back-to-back wins in the two most important games of the season for Glory.
These two wins gave Boston an 8-1 record and put them in the driver's seat to finish as the top seed in the East Division. They will look to keep the top spot in the division and clinch a playoff berth this coming Saturday, June 20th, against the Philadelphia Phoenix at 7:00 pm.
