Ryan Baker
For most of the game Sunday night between the Madison Radicals and Chicago Union, it was a dogfight. The 21-16 score in the Union’s favor doesn’t reflect how close the Radicals were to grabbing the win in enemy territory.
This is not to take anything away from the undefeated Chicago squad. They barely made any mistakes. The team looks polished, and when they did slip up, it was when they had control of the game.
The first turn of the game didn’t happen until the seventh point, where Madison cashed in on a David Nester to Jake Carrico break score. The Radicals were coming out doubling Paul Arters early in the point on the mark to limit his impact on the game. Eventually, Chicago was able to make adjustments to that and Arters was still able to walk away with four assists.
The game was tied at six heading into the last point and Madison had a chance to go up a score and get the disc to start the second, but a throwaway from Gabe Vordick allowed the Union to have the disc for the remainder of the clock.
To open up the second quarter, Kelsen Alexander put a 71-yard huck on the money to Kai Marcus within the first few throws of the point. Marcus was moving all over the field on Sunday night en route to four assists, one goal, and 448 total yards.
“The aim of offense is to balance the fear of turning it over with the exhilaration of throwing difficult throws. Too much fear and I miss open hands, too much risk and I turn it needlessly. I often slip into thinking that this is a difficult line to walk, but at the end of the day, offense is easy. Remembering that is what's hard. Yesterday we remembered, for a while,” said Marcus.
Following that, Chicago was able to rattle off three in a row, but then a Sam Stark massive layout block in the end zone on a huck turned the tides. Stark finished off the break to Luke Marks to tie the game at nine.
Heading into halftime the score was 11-11. Madison was perfect on their nine chances in the red zone and had converted three of their four break opportunities. Meanwhile, Chicago was sitting at 7/10 for red zone chances and had only converted two of their six break opportunities.
Out of the gate, the Radicals Chicago sent a huck a little too long that Marks was able to get a finger on, which led to a Marcus to Ted Schewe break score connection.
Schewe has been a staple in the offense for years but stood out in this matchup. With two assists, two goals, and 325 total yards, Schewe also did a phenomenal job on Chicago’s roller pulls. Schewe tended to pick up the disc, double-teamed on the sideline and would manage to get it out and to the middle of the field within seconds.
“It just comes down to practice. Our D-line is an incredibly talented group of guys. They show us different defensive looks every week, including a lot of different variations of roller pull sets. Having the opportunity to play against them every week helps us prepare for those big moments,” said Schewe.
With just under five minutes left in the third, Chicago started to make some unbelievable plays. Two huge layout blocks and some tough defense on the marks resulted in three straight breaks for Chicago. The Union were limiting the downfield shot, especially taking away any jump balls to Anthony Gutowsky. The game plan proved to be a good idea, as Madison was able to complete just three of their seven hucks.
“When something goes wrong, and we find ourselves outside the system, we have no idea what to do. Teams like Chicago and Minnesota have strong defensive lines that are good at pushing us out of our comfort zone, and we don’t practice being there enough,” said Marcus.
On top of that, the amazing red zone defense we saw last week from the Radicals was getting the top taken off of them. Madison puts so much pressure on the front cone and throwers in the red zone, that it typically leaves the opponent with, statistically, one of the worst looks in a cross-field strike with a ton of shape. Chicago was able to hit those throws nearly every time.
“I would argue that if a team is having to score by throwing all their goals at the back line that is exactly what we want them to do. Statistically, you’re going to get more turns that way. Can we improve our backside rotations? For sure,” said head coach Jacob Spiro.
Heading into the fourth, the Radicals were down four but had a few chances to make the game closer. A Matt Grinde to Gutowsky score put it within three, and an out-of-bounds huck by Chicago gave Madison a chance to put the pressure on. However, a McCarthy throw into traffic gave the Union a dirty hold to keep them at bay.
Four throwaways in the last two points by Madison was the true nail in the coffin. It was a theme we have seen a ton from them in the last couple of years. The Radicals play phenomenally until a couple of breaks happen, then mistakes compound, attitude changes, and the gap increases. We also saw the lowest total of the year for the Radicals in blocks with just five this game. Their next lowest is nine.
“The execution from both teams became poor following a few long points. I thought our O-line executed much better than that in prior games. We need our D-line to create more chances than we did,” said Spiro.
Chicago is a top team in the league, one of three undefeated squads left, and Madison competed with them at the highest level.
“While it’s frustrating that we couldn’t quite execute throughout the entire game, I think this was a great experience for us to have at this point in the season,” said Schewe. “I think we can use this as a stepping stone to get where we want to be in August. We’ve seen the level we need to hit. We’ve shown that we can play at that level, and now we just need to show that we can stay there for all four quarters.”
The Radicals return to action Friday night at Breese when the reigning UFA Champion Minnesota Wind Chill come to town.
