Ryan Baker
The Madison Radicals took care of business this weekend, securing their home playoff game with a 21-14 win against the Chicago Union. They then traveled to Minnesota and suffered a 16-23 loss to the Wind Chill.
The Radicals did what needed to be done. They won their first game of the weekend, giving players with lingering injuries a chance to rest for the second game of the final weekend of the regular season.
Things didn’t start out as cleanly as they hoped against Chicago. After a cleanup layout block by Tom Hobday in his first-ever point in the UFA, it seemed like the defense was going to start out the game with a break, but a turnover from Sterling Knoche gave Chicago the chance for a dirty hold. After converting on that, Chicago proceeded to break Madison when, on the 17th throw of the possession, Gabe Vordick turned it over in the red zone.
From there, Madison turned up the dial. A 4-1 run to finish out the first quarter was helped by four turnovers by the Union, and all of a sudden Madison was up by one. After they gained that lead, there was no looking back as the second quarter opened and closed with a hold, then a break by Madison.
Kelsen Alexander had a layout block on the goal line that he then picked up and threw into Jeff Maskalunas. Jack Nelson fed Arthur Carne his first-ever UFA goal in the middle of the second quarter. And at the end of the quarter, Eric Sjostrom tossed a prayer up to the end zone that was tipped by Pieran Robert. However, Knoche snuck in the back of the pile and snatched the disc before it hit the ground. Heading into halftime, the Radicals were up 11-6.
Coming out of half, the two teams traded points, but it wasn’t until a two-and-a-half-minute point that ended in a huck from Nelson landed in the hands of Nico Ranabhat, where the pattern switched. After that huck score, Jake Carrico, Hobday, and Alexander all got a block on separate points that led to three straight breaks.
Up seven heading into the fourth, the game was all wrapped up. Chicago and Madison scored four times apiece, coming in pairs each time. It was the right kind of game to carry into their second matchup of the weekend with some momentum. Robert had four goals and three blocks, Maskalunas and Ranabhat had three assists apiece, and Vordick led the team with 401 total yards and 56 completions.
With a lot of their impact players sitting out for the Minnesota game, Madison came out fighting and traded points with Minnesota. With four minutes left in the first quarter, the score was tied at five, but then things started to fall apart. Before that shift, Robert scored Madison's fifth goal, his 46th of the season, and secured the UFA 2026 goal-scoring title.
“It's extremely exciting,” Robert said on securing the goal-scoring title. “This entire season my teammates have put me in good positions to score, and to be able to finish off a lot of points and contribute to the team, it's such a great feeling. For two seasons in a row we've had a Radical at the top of the scoring title, which is a really good feeling and really good for the continuation of this program.”
Minnesota closed out the quarter with a three-point run, but that was after Madison had a chance for a break on that 11th point of the game. The second quarter wasn’t much different than the end of the first. Madison didn’t score their first point of the quarter until five seconds were remaining on the clock. Eight turnovers in 11 minutes were the downfall, and they were down by eight heading into half.
“We're looking at Indy coming up here, and we know that they can go on runs as we saw against Minnesota,” Ranabhat said. “Being accustomed to that and being a little more used to that is good for us.”
At the break, Madison had two failed break opportunities, was 6/17 on O-line, and had 12 turnovers to Minnesota’s four. The Radicals did outscore the Wind Chill by one in the second half and played solidly even with many guys out and a massive hole to climb out of.
“The lesson here is really the second half,” Ranabhat said. “Responding after that first half, and coming back believing that we can play with this team, believing in ourselves, you only get so many points a season. Every one of them matters, so that mental switch at halftime was really big.”
Individually, there were some solid performances. Ranabhat racked up five assists, two goals, a block, and 454 total yards. Carrico finished with four assists and no turnovers; Robert had another four goals; and Kainoa Chun-Moy and Max Sample had three goals apiece. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Kyle Conniff, who was a game-time scratch, was replaced by John Tan, who had two blocks on the night.
“This was a big opportunity for us to compete,” Robert said. “There are a lot of guys who had not seen a ton of games throughout the season, and they really stepped up. The score is one thing, but our ability to compete and stay focused throughout the game helps drive our entire roster up. I think it gives us really great momentum going into our playoff game, especially in front of our home crowd.”
Overall, the weekend ended as a win. The whole goal was to secure that home playoff game, so there was not much focus on the Minnesota matchup. All of the energy and time went into the Union, so the Wind Chill result was not much of a shock. Even so, the strong second half on Sunday gives the team something to carry into its playoff game.
The Radicals take on the AlleyCats on Sunday night in Round 1 of the UFA playoffs!
