Ryan Baker
The Madison Radicals were able to mitigate some damage this past weekend during their doubleheader. They lost to the Minnesota Wind Chill 22-16 on Friday night but followed that with a 31-20 win against the Detroit Mechanix the next day.
Their biggest weakness hit them hard this past Friday night against the Wind Chill. Continually, this team gives up runs and continues to not be able to bounce back from them.
Friday night started out well for the Radicals. A break on the first point and a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter had them neck in neck with the reigning champ. Even the second quarter was much of the same, but Minnesota ended the first half with a buzzer-beater of their own to put the Radicals down two heading into halftime.
The issue in the first half was the long points that Minnesota ground out, and being too quick and antsy on break opportunities in the red zone. The third quarter was the downfall for Madison, something we’ve seen the last few years.
“I think part of it is a little bit of conditioning. We have to make sure we still have good legs in the third. We're holding with teams like Chicago and Minnesota through the first half, but we have to stay dialed in. It's something we've been talking about for the entire year,” said Kelsen Alexander.
The Radicals gave away the disc seven times in the matter of five points, leading to a five-point run they couldn’t recover from. You take out that third quarter, and Madison loses the game by just two points. However, that’s not how ultimate works. You need to play a full four quarters.
“I don't even feel like it was just the third quarter. I feel like the whole game we couldn't stand up to their ‘in your shorts’ defense. I don't think we're used to playing against really tight defense. We're used to playing against a poaching defense, and we're good at that, and that's what Chicago threw against us. We still got a lot of work to do,” said Kai Marcus.
Heading into the fourth, you could tell the atmosphere in the stadium was a negative one. Players had their heads down, fans were quiet, and the deficit was too large. When you go 4/17 on break chances, especially against a high-caliber team like Minnesota, you aren’t going to win the game.
After the loss, Madison was able to flip the switch and get nearly anything they wanted against the Mechanix, but going 13/33 on break opportunities against Detroit is a mark that needs to be higher.
There were slight scares to start the game for a couple of reasons. Detroit is a huck-happy team and everyone knows that, yet Madison was still getting beat deep consistently in the first quarter. The second reason was the amount of slipping that was going on during the game.
“It was pretty cool to see a field explicitly lined for UFA play, but it seemed like the turf was poorly laid. There were potholes and the turf was loose. I’m not really sure what the deal was but definitely lots of slipping,” said Kainoa Chun-Moy.
After the first quarter, the game was tied at seven, but after a three-point run to start the second quarter, the Radicals never looked back. They were able to go up 15-11 at halftime, then opened up the break with a third-quarter run of their own. With just over four minutes left in the third, the Radicals found themselves up 22-11 after a six-point run.
The final quarter gave us an absolute barrage of points with the two teams combining for 16 points. While it was a dominating win, it’s tough to give a ton of credit to the Radicals given the history behind the Mechanix.
Radicals’ fans also saw some unfamiliar names in the Detroit game, given the openness of the lines.
Regardless of wins or losses, some players had amazing weekends in the stat book. Anthony Gutowsky headlines the group putting up 11 goals and 692 total yards over the two games. Gutowsky also had 39 completions over the weekend and is worth noting considering he had 80 completions all over 2024.
We also saw Kainoa Chun-Moy put on an absolute clinic with nine assists, four goals, and more than 650 total yards in the two games. Meanwhile, Sam Stark snatched four blocks, two in each game, and Pieran Robert had four goals and six blocks, adding to his solid sophomore season.
“My teammates are really good frisbee players. They cut hard, clear hard, see space, and make some really difficult throws and catches. That makes my job of running around and chasing plastic pretty easy! It’s such a privilege to play for the Radicals and have great teammates,” said Chun-Moy.
Noah Pollack and Noah Petersen made their UFA debuts in the second game of the doubleheader, while Val Post got his first tick in 2025. More notable in terms of debuts were Eric Sjostrom and Max Junga. Junga made his debut against Minnesota, only playing six points, but was able to punch in three assists and two blocks in the game against Detroit.
As far as Sjostrom goes, he looked crisp and ready to rock in his Radical debut against Detroit. Sjostrom was a key addition for Madison at the beginning of the season, but they had to wait for him to relocate before getting him on the field. The former Atlanta Hustle took 2024 off but didn’t seem to skip a beat with his four assists, one goal, and 407 total yards performance.
“It was a whole lot of fun! It felt really good to be back out on a pro field, especially with this group. It felt great, but more so just affirming that I’m capable of playing at a high level. My teammates made it very easy on me. I felt like I was on the same page with everyone and the communication was great all game,” said Sjostrom.
“Eric had a great debut game for us. He’s a very talented player and has a light-hearted but intense attitude that meshes well with our squad. Sorry for Detroit catching strays but other teams in the central play very different styles of defense, so we will have to reserve judgment to some degree,” said head coach Jacob Spiro.
There is a lot to take away from the 1-1 weekend from the Radicals. There is a ton of growth required for them to reach the level of Minnesota or Chicago, but they do have the weapons. The team sits at 4-3 on the season with some space in both directions, sitting at third in the Central Division. They will have a week off to gear up for another Friday night home game against Detroit.
