Ryan Baker
The Madison Radicals have surpassed their midseason mark in the 2025 season and currently sit third in the Central Division at 4-3.
The team embarked on its first-ever road trip to Texas to play the Havoc and Sol. They left Texas with a 1-1 record after a rain-shortened victory over the Havoc, and a bad loss to Austin.
Following that, Madison was able to rattle off two straight wins in their first two home games of the year against Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Those were two performances that showed the potential of this team, winning by a combined 17 points.
“I think my favorite highlight was our first home game of the season. It was a huge day for me. I graduated. All my family and friends were in town, it was the first game of the season, and I played well. That was by far my favorite moment of the season,” said Anthony Gutowsky.
The next two games landed the Rads on the other side of the coin, losing to Chicago and Minnesota. The two matchups against the two top teams in the division showed some weaknesses in their game. Minnesota and Chicago exposed the lack of resilience the Rads tend to have when they give up runs. However, Madison was able to get back on track against Detroit with a dominating 31-20 win.
“Two games in a row, the third quarter was our downfall in an otherwise competitive game. Now, partially we need to improve our consistency as a team, but we’re also looking at what we do at halftime so we can bring the same energy we are starting games with,” said head coach Jacob Spiro.
Fans may be seeing some déjà vu when it comes to the midway point in Madison’s season. For years now, it’s been the same issue for this young team. They struggle with giving up third-quarter runs and not being able to recover from them. It allows them to beat the lower-level teams but makes it a problem when it comes to squads like Chicago, and especially Minnesota.
“I think we really need to start understanding how to cut, for real. If we're going to play and beat these top-tier teams, we really need to learn something that we don't know. I think we're a young team and we don't have a lot of high-level club experience on this team right now. It shows when someone is equally or more athletic than us, and they're playing really tight defense. We have a really hard time getting open on them,” said Kai Marcus.
Getting over that curve has to happen at some point, right? The team is still getting used to some adjustments to their team and coaching staff that we could see ironing out the rest of the way. The head coaching change and role change from Tim DeByl to Jacob Spiro has been going well. There wasn’t too much change in that regard, considering both have been coaching the team for a long time.
“There are so many highlights to choose from with this group, but I’ll pick the home opening win versus Pittsburgh. It was a nice team win in front of a great Breese Stevens crowd. It’s hard to beat that, but I’m confident we will in the second half of the season,” said Spiro.
In terms of roster changes, they finally saw their last one get implemented in Detroit with Eric Sjostrom making his Radical debut. He played incredibly well, but the verdict is still out on how much impact he can have due to the opponent being a lackluster Mechanix team. Nonetheless, his experience will be crucial going forward.
“I officially moved up to Madison at the beginning of June so I’m here for the long haul now. I just plan to keep grinding at our practices and building chemistry with all of my teammates. Each rep builds and builds and gets us toward that ultimate goal of making it to championship weekend,” said Sjostrom.
The other key addition was Kainoa Chun-Moy and that has paid dividends. Chun-Moy has had several major games that have put him second on the team in assists with 13, and fifth on the team in goals with nine.
On the other hand, the team has missed the presence of Sterling Knoche and Max Sample. Between those two, they are missing a defensive weapon in Knoche and a sure-handed big target in Sample.
“I’m looking forward to spending more time with the team and getting to our final form! I’m quietly hopeful all our Rads, Sterling [Knoche] and Max [Sample] can all be healthy for the final two games. I’ve heard of and seen glimpses of both and am dying to see them in action,” said Chun-Moy.
“We need to build our confidence as a team. We are looking to build our rhythm together over the next couple of games. Hopefully, getting fully healthy over these next couple of weeks could help us move into the home stretch. Jack Nelson has been playing through an injury, Max Sample has hardly played at all and Sterling [Knoche] has yet to play this year,” said Spiro
The Radicals do have a chance to build some of that confidence with their next three matchups. They have another doubleheader this weekend hosting Detroit then traveling to Indianapolis. They follow that by hosting Indianapolis a week later on July 5.
“We can use those games as building blocks, and try to really practice what we've been struggling with. That way when Minnesota and Chicago come around again, we're more prepared for what they're going to throw at us. That way we can be ready to handle those runs that we let up,” said Mitchell McCarthy.
As long as those games go according to plan, Madison should be heading into their final and biggest two games of the year at 7-3.
“We don’t play Minnesota and Chicago right now. We still have three games ahead of us before that. They are not guaranteed wins, and there are a lot of things that we need to fix in our game,” said Anthony Gutowsky.
The Rads end the 2025 season with a game in Minnesota’s home stadium on July 12, then hosting Chicago on July 20.
“The first thing is resting our bodies after this arduous stretch of three games in six days. Outside of practice, I’ll be working more on conditioning, footwork, and throws. At practice, we will need to work on sets, chemistry, and execution, so that in a month when we head to Minnesota we’re ready to rock,” said Chun-Moy.
It’s the same story as last year for the team. The team relies on the defense to produce scores game in and game out. It works for some games, but the offense needs to get more consistent. As it stands the historic Radical defense is top ten in blocks, scores against, and break percentage.
On the other side of the disc, the offense lands in the bottom five for completion percentage, and bottom ten in hold percentage, offensive line conversion rate, and red zone conversion rate.
Individually, we’ve seen some sparks from this Madison team. Leading the defense in blocks are Luke Marks at 11, which is tied for sixth-most in the league, Pieran Robert with nine, and Gutowsky with eight. At the top of the team in assists are Marcus with 15, the aforementioned Chun-Moy, and Jake Carrico with 12.
Scoring-wise we are in the midst of another potential historic season from Gutowsky. He sits with 32 goals on the year, good for third in the league. Last year, we watched him break the franchise record for goals in a season with 51, and this year he is on pace for 54. The guys that follow Gutowsky in goals are McCarthy, Nico Ranabhat, and Robert all with eleven goals apiece.
“It used to be something I would think about a lot, just because I was younger and I thought it was cool. As I continue playing, I just play how I play and generate a lot of success. If I don’t reach a certain amount of goals per game, it’s not going to make me angry. As long as the team gets the win, that’s all I care about,” said Gutowksy.
At some point, this team will figure it out. It’s just a matter of when and if it can happen before the end of the season. If they hit a stride, you could see some upsets happening closer to championship weekend.
Next game is Friday night at Breese Stevens Field vs the Detroit Mechanix.
